Pathway to Purpose for Women: Connecting Your To-Do List, Your Passions, and God's Purposes for Your Life

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0310256496 ISBN 13: 9780310256496

Publisher: Zondervan, 2005

For many women, knowing God's five purposes for their lives---worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and evangelism---leads to the natural questions, 'What am I doing in the midst of deadlines, diapers, to-do lists, laundry, and daily schedules? What is the connection between my life purposes and the daily existence I am living now?' In these three companion volumes, Katie Brazelton helps women connect the dots between living amidst the details of their lives and living out God's purposes for their lives. She provides road-tested tools that have become the stepping stones for women along the pathway to living in purpose. Pathway to Purpose for Women: Connecting Your To-Do List, Your Passions, and God's Purposes for Your Life How does a woman live through---see through---the ordinary when she yearns for the significant? This how-to guide, filled with true personal stories, provides stepping stones through the challenges of not only discovering your universal purposes, but also discerning your unique purposes in this life. Praying for Purpose for Women: A Prayer Experience That Will Change Your Life Forever Do you want God to tell you more about his specific plan for your life? This 60-day prayer experience will guide you to ask God to mentor you in your life's purposes. Included are insights from modern-day role models, examples of biblical characters, specific questions to ask yourself and to seek God's answers, and an eye-opening analysis of your life patterns and purposes. Conversations on Purpose for Women: Ten Appointments That Will Change Your Life Forever Designed to be used with a Purpose Partner, this workbook is filled with conversation starters, Scripture verses, questions, and specific self-assessment exercises to help you uncover God's Dream for your life, moving you from an initial sneak preview to the most challenging steps you will want to take on your journey toward purpose-filled living. Consumers may purchase Pathway to Purpose or Praying for Purpose independently of the other. Conversations on Purpose should be sold as a companion book to Pathway to Purpose.

About the Author:

Jeff Brazil is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, writer, editor, with expertise in digital media and strategic communication. A former enterprise writer and senior editor for the Los Angeles Times, he has collaborated on several other books about social justice, culture, spirituality, and leadership. SPANISH BIO: Kate Brazelton, (Ph D, M Div, MA), es coach ontologica y autora de la serie exito de ventas, Camino hacia el proposito para mujeres (Zondervan/Vida) y sus libros acompanantes; Remodelacion de caracter y Conversaciones con proposito, con mas de 420 mil copias impresas. Antes de convertirse en ministro licenciado en la Iglesia Saddleback, Katie fue directora de relaciones publicas para una empresa de medicina multimillonaria y presidente de desarrollo de curriculo en una compania de etica educacional. Katie es fundadora y capacitadora de los 'Centros internacional de entrenamiento para una vida de proposito'. Actualmente es columnista, conferenciante y profesora en el Seminario Rockbridge buscando realizar su sueno de establecer 200 centros adicionales alrededor del mundo. Ella reside en el sur de California con sus dos hijos adultos, su nuera y nietos.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Pathway to Purpose for Women Copyright 2005 by Katherine F. Brazelton This title is also available as a Zondervan audio product. Visit www.zondervan.com/audiopages for more information. Requests for information should be addressed to: Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brazelton, Katie, 1950-- Pathway to purpose for women : connecting your to-do list, your passions, and God's purposes for your life / Katie Brazelton ; foreword by Kay Warren.---1st ed. p. cm. --- (Pathway to purpose series) Includes bibliographical references. Summary: 'This book uses true personal stories to provide stepping stones for discovering purpose in life. With discussion guide'---Provided by the publisher. ISBN-10: 0-310-25649-6 (hardcover) ISBN-13: 978-0-310-25649-6 1. Christian women---Religious life. 2. Vocation---Christianity. I. Title. II. Series. BV4527.B683 2005 248.8'43---dc22 2004028853 This edition printed on acid-free paper. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NKJV in this publication are from The New King James Bible Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc. Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible: New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. Scripture quotations marked TLB are taken from The Living Bible. Copyright 1971 by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from The Amplified Bible, Old Testament. Copyright 1965, 1987, by the Zondervan Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The website addresses recommended throughout this book are offered as a resource to you. These websites are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement on the part of Zondervan, nor do we vouch for their content for the life of this book. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means---electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other---except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Interior design by Beth Shagene Printed in the United States of America 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 /.DCI/ 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Part One Step toward the Pathway Chapter 1 IS YOUR LIFE OUT OF SYNC? My life flies by---day after hopeless day. (JOB 7:6, TLB) Do you remember George Bailey, the main character in the classic movie, It's a Wonderful Life? He sinks into a serious depression and even considers ending his life because of his unrealized dreams and feelings of uselessness. With the help of Clarence, an angel, George is shown the impact of the specific relational assignments in which he has been critically needed over the years. He comes to realize that there has been a clear purpose in his life all along. He discovers that his life has mattered and still matters a great deal. Like George, we each have purposes to fulfill, many of which are linked to our relationships, passions, talents, experiences, dreams, hopes, and longings. Living a larger, more fulfilling and dynamic life than you may currently be living is possible when you catch God's vision for your life. It is a transformational experience. I'm no angel, but I experienced a remarkable transformation as I journeyed on the pathway to purpose. And, I am eager to share lessons I have learned along the way. At age thirty-five, I unexpectedly found myself divorced. Gary and I had started dating during college. We got married, built a life together, had children. Then, in the flash of a conversation that lasted only a few minutes, it was over. All of a sudden I had no husband to tend to, my two children were often visiting their dad, and many of the family responsibilities that for years had defined my life were nearly nonexistent. I was far more fortunate than many divorced women with young children. I was not financially abandoned and forced into survival mode. Quite the opposite. My ex-husband adored our children. He couldn't get enough of them or do enough to make our lives easier. So when the kids came home to me, they were fed, often newly clothed, and happily exhausted. I had less laundry, cooking, shopping, and homework assistance to worry about than when we were together as a family. I lived like a divorced princess. But deep inside, I was not well. The ease of my life did nothing to lessen the immeasurable sadness of the divorce. My heart was broken and I was lonely. Fewer neighborhood kids visited our new, tiny house, and no couples invited me to join their outings. After a few bad experiences, I chose not to date. So I lived a quiet and simple life shared with several faithful friends, my Bible, and my new best companion, TV Guide. With no pressing roles to fulfill, I felt enormously dispirited and useless. Everything I had crowded into my life to bring it some semblance of meaning had been yanked away or grown stagnant. My casual friends noticed that I seemed lost, but those who knew me best realized that I was crashing into hopelessness. The pain of that transition and my lack of purpose was made worse by the fact that for five years I had begged God to give me a Joan of Arc--type cause or a unique purpose to champion, but he had not seen fit to do so. I felt confused. At times I wondered if the only logical life purpose I had left was shopping for new clothes because my weight spiraled downward as my depression deepened. A LONGING FOR PURPOSE It has been more than a decade and a half since those difficult days, and God has given me more meaning in life than I ever could have imagined. In the midst of that purposeless desert, I began an intense spiritual journey through which God slowly revealed to me his multifaceted reasons for my existence. Today, my service as a licensed minister at Saddleback Church and as a Certified Christian LifePlan Facilitator1 allow me the privilege of walking alongside other women who are crying out for purpose in their lives. I will share a bit more of my journey on the pathway to purpose shortly, but now, let me ask about you. How are you doing in the area of personal validity and life significance? Are you crying out to the Lord for clarity regarding his purposes for your life? Through my own faltering steps and my interaction with thousands of other women, I have come to realize that countless good, Christian women barely function because they feel alone, disillusioned, or trapped by vague dissatisfaction. They feel that they have no critically important reason to exist, and they are guiltridden about their dark secret of borderline despair. The fact is, most women have felt this void at one time or another, even if just mildly. At some transition point in life, they have experienced a let-down feeling. This unexplainable melancholy may manifest itself in many ways---from the baby blues to a midlife crisis. It may be prompted by a job loss, a home relocation, or divorce. It may also occur after reaching a cherished goal such as completing a race, building a house, graduating from school, planning a wedding, or retiring from a career. If you find yourself in this perplexing place, you may feel bored and confused. Perhaps you hunger for something challenging to which to give your life.