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

Selected Notes
Volume 6 Number 37
#281 “They Bumped Right Into Me”

September 13th, 2023

I’m curious. Let me ask you a question.
Have you ever been involved in a fender bender where someone banged into you?
Have you ever been waiting in line at the cashier and someone bumped into you with their shopping cart?
Have you ever just been standing looking at something on the shelf and someone carelessly bumped into you?

I guess some bumps in life are nearly unavoidable.
Though Karen spoke only to ladies in conferences, seminars, and retreats, I know that her thoughts are so good for men as well. What I am sharing goes way back to the 1990s when Karen was speaking at a ladies’ banquet.

Let me share the Scriptures she shared with the ladies and then a tiny bit of one of her paragraphs.

“She opens her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness” (Proverbs 31:26). “The aged women likewise that they be in behavior as becomes holiness…” (Titus 2:3).

Karen wrote: There needs to be a sweetness about our lives. As a basket or vase of flowers produces a sweet aroma and draws you to it, so must we live. On the other hand, a harsh personality that is critical and disagreeable, an “I told you so” kind of speech, pushes people away.

I stumbled across a thought by Jessie Rice Sandberg. She wrote, “When you are bumped, what splashes out? Whatever is on the inside will splash out when hit.” So, is there a sweetness that splashes out even when you are bumped?

Sometimes the bumps in life are not caused by people, but situations.
I realize these two verses are written to Godly ladies. But think of this. As a believer, I have the privilege of displaying the fruit of the Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). No doubt you will soon “be bumped” by someone making their journey close to you. What will splash out when that happens? Will it be harshness or will it be the sweetness of the fruit of the Spirit?

Let me send you on your way with a smile.
Sometimes the bumps are not people bumps but situations that interrupt our plans. As I started writing this, our dog wanted to come back in the house. I let him in only to discover that he had rolled in something in our backyard. A little scrubbing and rinsing with the hose and a lot of chasing him to get him dried, and I am back to writing. Within two or three words, the doorbell rang, so I went to the door only to discover two people from a “church” that I would not consider a church who wanted to talk to me about God’s will. What a wonderful opportunity to share my testimony and send them on their way.

Hmmm! I was convinced that I would get to demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit before too long after writing about it. I just didn’t think it was going to be before I finished the article!