work, faith, and family
My idea of fun is to be the woman God created me to be: beautiful in his sight, blessed with a few abilities he has entrusted to me, and lavished with his grace to cover my flaws, thus making me perfect. -Diane Paddison
Work, faith, and family... the three important priorities in Diane Paddison's life, as she explains in her book Work Pray Love. Paddison is a very successful Christian businesswoman who, in this book, describes how she arrived to her position professionally, and how she has carefully prioritized her faith and family needs alongside her blooming business career. As a woman who went to an ivy league business school in the 1980s, she was expected to put her career first; to do anything else would seem like a disappointing compromise after "getting so far" in the business world.
And yet Paddison thinks otherwise, in her own life as well as for other young professional Christian women, to whom this book is targeted. She explains that there are definite complications and compromises that arise when balancing the three, but her ability to articulate her priorities to her co-workers and importance of her career to family allowed her to flourish - by God's grace, provision, and blessing.
I haven't dug too deeply into the website yet, but Paddison's site, 4wordwomen.org, is for an organization she leads that connects young professionals and provides resources and encouragement that they (we) need to stay edified in these three areas - faith, family, and work. It's hard to believe we are a rather overlooked demographic in the church, but it's true. Paddison states,
- "If society is finally getting comfortable with young, successful career women, the church is still trying to figure out what to do with us. I've been at this for a long time now, and I've yet to find a church that addresses the specific needs of a professional Christian woman."
In my experiences, young women are not trained or encouraged nearly as much as young boys and men in the faith, in terms of learning doctrine, theology, Scripture memory, and such. Since it is a more recent phenomenon - within the past century - of women in the professional workplace - the responsibility and necessity for balance and appropriate resources within a Christian context needs to become more prominent - because according to her website, these resources indeed exist to connect and strengthen these women. Check out the "Support" section in the sidebar for many external websites and organizations. The website is also designed with the same color scheme as the book which, for us designers, is a little bonus.
Below are some quotations taken from the book that I found meaningful, and a video of Diane herself explaining the goal of her organization, which is also largely what the book is about.
- "Stay true to your core and never let your work or a boss force you to compromise." (quoting CEO Toni Portman)
- "When you are given a talent and use it effectively for God, he multiplies it." (quoting Collette Chambers)
- It's no accident that you have the intelligence and skills to excel in the professional world. They were given to you by God to use for his service (Romans 12:4-8).
- To serve is to live. (quoting Frances Hesselbein)
Do you think there is enough support and enough resources available for professional Christian women, in America or your own culture if abroad? Do you have any suggestions of other resources for this demographic?
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