“Karen’s Notes!
Insights from a Glory-Bound Lady”

Selected Notes
Volume 3 Number 8, “Changed Lives and a Thank You Letter”
February 19th, 2020

Many have expressed to me that they are blessed by “Karen’s Notes.” Men and women alike have enjoyed peeking into her journal or reading the brief notes she wrote in her workshop notes. You have come to expect a certain format for the way I lay out her post each Wednesday.

Today, I am going to do something very different. I simply want to challenge you to consider something that took place in Karen’s life that was clearly from the Lord. She responded to His leading. She obeyed, trusted Him, was stretched and blessed indeed.

In the 1970s Karen said: “Michael, you are the public speaker. I am not. I am willing to do anything in the church. I am willing to help in the kitchen, the nursery, with the cleaning, entertaining, or even teaching children. But I cannot speak publicly in groups of adult ladies and I especially cannot speak to ladies’ groups in other churches.” She loved talking with the ladies in conversation but not in front of the group as a speaker. I assured her that was more than all right with me.

In the 1900s Karen said: “Michael, today an invitation came from a ladies’ group in a sister church to speak at their ladies’ event. I think I need to pray about this because maybe the Lord wants to stretch me. Maybe I should accept the invitation.”

Michael’s observation: The very thing that Karen was quite certain that she could not and would never do was the very thing that slowly but surely brought her great joy in doing so. Though she never asked for a speaking engagement, soon she was booked for many ladies’ events spanning multiple states. Always she trusted the Lord and was never confident in herself.

Here’s the great lesson. “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” (Genesis 18:14). When the Lord really lays something on your heart to do, even if you thought you never could, nothing is too hard for Him. When God wants you to do that assignment, He will give you the strength, wisdom, and ability to do it through Him. Karen discovered joy in speaking, and the Lord really used her!

This is a portion of an out-of-state thank you card she received in 1993. “Dear Karen, We want to say a big “thank you” for such an uplifting and encouraging time on Saturday at our ‘Ladies’ Day. So many ladies were commenting in church on Sunday about the blessed time they had and how encouraged they were by your sessions. We thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to come and speak to us.”

I used to tease my dear Karen by saying, “For someone who would NEVER speak publicly, it would seem to me that you ARE speaking all over the place in multiple sessions!” She often replied, “Only the Lord could do this!”

What does the Lord want you to do that you never dreamed possible?