The Gathering Place Where Family Matters

The invitation to speak at a particular event would arrive and then often a little explanation as to the theme of the engagement would be shared. Sometimes the speaking invitation came with no particular theme, and the one doing the inviting would say something like this: “Just speak on whatever you sense the Lord is leading you. It’s up to you.”

Such an invitation came to Karen. She was invited to speak three times over two days. Let me share a verse of Scripture with you and then just wait until you read what Karen was told.

You know that Karen held such a personal conviction that her public speaking engagements were ONLY for ladies. But men, I want to tell you that this is so good for us as well. I’m not sure where this seminar took place; however, she was speaking to the ladies about making their Bible reading and prayer time more meaningful.

I always seek to be careful what I share from Karen’s Notes. She wrote things to herself that I know she would not want me to share. But this is something that I know she wouldn’t mind me passing along to you. I found this a few months ago as I was reading from her Bible. It’s a small postcard published by Warner Press in 1988. I gave it to her following the death of our little boy, Jeffrey.

I want to do something different this week. I am holding her Bible. I’ve discovered some things that I haven’t looked at in a long time. When you consider the personality that Karen had and her determination not to hang onto things no longer needed, you’ll sense the importance of what I discovered she not only kept, but kept in her Bible. There she would see these things often, read them again, and embrace them. I’ll share this with you in just a second. Think of this verse first.

Karen and I always prayed about her speaking engagements. I was genuinely interested in not only where she had been invited but also what she’d be speaking about. She only spoke to ladies’ groups. But I also realize that as I read her notes, there are some good encouragements to not only ladies but to men as well. You can imagine my surprise when she told me the title of her seminar was going to be “Your Church Needs to Have Fun!”