4word - Women who work, love, pray

The ratio of women in today's workforce is rising, and old best practices no longer apply. Women launching careers will find wisdom for every life stage in Work, Love, Pray.

Diane Paddison shares the ups and downs of her own corporate, personal, and spiritual life. 15 more leaders advise how to progress in your career without compromise. The foreword is authored by a successful executive, Charity Wallace, Senior Advisor to Mrs. Laura Bush and Director of the Bush Women's Initiative.

Application questions in every section guide self-assessment. Women are connecting in Work, Love, Pray book studies. Work, Love, Pray is becoming a must-read for husbands, pastors, and mentors.

About the author:
Diane Paddison is Chief Strategy Officer and board member at the commercial real estate firm Cassidy Turley, and serves as a board member for numerous corporate and national nonprofit boards. Diane has held several executive positions for corporate companies, including Chief Operating Officer of Trammell Crow (now CB Richard Ellis) and ProLogis. She and her husband have four children, and they live in Dallas. Diane blogs weekly, and would love your comment on her Monday posts! Check out Diane's Monday Posts on the 4word Blog. Request Diane Paddison or a 4word leader for speaking engagements at hello@4wordwomen.org. Honorariums go to 4word, a 501©3 entity.

Reviews: See what readers are saying about Work, Love, Pray.

Diane,
I wanted to thank you for writing your book. Though it may be aimed at the younger Christian woman, most of it touches aspects of my not so young life. Though I have read several books about "having it all," yours is the first which addresses faith and the working woman. I purchased several copies and am distributing them among my female cohorts. In fact, by giving this book to one friend I met when we both worked for CBRE, the issue of faith is coming up for the first time. This is a woman who nagged me to get a mammogram which discovered breast cancer years ago. We are close enough for that, but had never discussed God. Wow.
Thanks so much for publishing this book.

Erin Leedham, CSM

Thank you so much for writing this book and sharing with this generation of young women! Your life is truly an inspiration!
As a single young woman in NYC, things aren't always easy. I've been here for 3.5 years and haven't been on one date! Everyone in the workforce is trying to be the next something or another within 2 years (Chairman, CEO, CFO, COO...anything c-suite). And there's a church on every corner in the boroughs surrounding Manhattan, but many don't have ministries that cater to young adults--let alone young women. It's not easy, but I'm so happy that I serve the Almighty, Most High God! He makes promises that I know will come to pass! No date? No worries. Job just okay and not truly fulfilling? No worries. I know that the Lord is preparing me for what He has already prepared for me!

Your book has helped to keep the juices flowing. It's important to regularly ask myself, and the Lord, about the future: ministry, family, career, relocating--everything according to God's plan.

So again, thank you for writing this book! I wish you all the best in the present and the future.

Justine

I recently moved to San Francisco for a job and your book has been a great encouragement. As I just graduated, this job is the first jumping off point for me. Your book helped me think more creatively about ways I can engage the Christian and non-Christian women around me in community, while also continuing to seek the Lord first and trust his guidance. I feel a strong call to stay in business as a Christian and have already been surprised by the conversations and opportunities that have come my way. Your book and life were a great testament to both your faith, and the faithfulness of God in your life.

Thank you so much for sharing this with all of us. I hope our paths cross in the future.

Maggie Harlow

I applaud Diane Paddison for sharing her story in this beautiful book.

Diane is a conservative Christian. She is also a wife, mother, and successful businesswoman who advanced in her career at the same time that she raised her children. This book is the story of how she did it.

Many books inspire. Many other books offer practical counsel. Diane is the rare author who successfully combines the two. The result is a book that is both a beautiful spiritual memoir and a treasure trove of godly counsel from a wise, older woman to young women who are just entering the workplace.

I cried when I read this book, and I don't cry easily. For the first time, I felt understood by a Christian author from my corner of the evangelical world. Diane affirmed God's calling on my life and acknowledged that not all women are led to be housewives. I wish this book and the valuable practical advice it contains had been available to me as I began my career. I will recommend it to my daughter and her friends.

Diane shows us that faith, family and career need not be mutually exclusive. However, she also understands the tensions involved in a two-career marriage and the difficulty of juggling motherhood and career. She shares her journey and insights so that others may learn from her successes and failures.

If you're a young woman whose desire is to seek God first and then marvel at the immense love, strength and creativity that He unleashes in your life, then this book is for you.

Blessings to you, Diane, as you begin your ministry to young professional Christian women at 4word. May your tribe increase!

Work Love Pray is an engaging and inspiring read...I raced through it over one busy weekend. The author shares her life stories with humility and humor, but the lessons she teaches are profound. This book is at the top of my Christmas list for all the young ladies in my life, from my granddaughter to the young women who work for me. While its messages are spot on for young women, the wise guidance is too important to limit to just females. My sons will also be receiving this book because I know they'll also be blessed and inspired by reading it.

Work Love Pray is a great book that speaks to the unique challenges that young Christian women face in the world today. I wish this book had been written 25 years ago so that I could have benefited from Diane's wisdom. I have purchased several copies to give to the young professional women in my life. Highly recommend!

As a young, professional, Christian woman, I've struggled to find role models that have been successful in work, family and faith. I'm so happy Diane has shared her successes and "failures" with readers because it gives women like me hope that we really can achieve it all. I've recently been struggling with the idea of someday juggling the roles as a career women, wife and mother. Diane's "Work, Love, Pray" has provided me an endless amount of comfort and a great example.

Work, Love, Pray is written by a gifted, inspirational woman who rose to the top of a career never compromising her traditional values or spiritual growth. Diane Paddison assembles true-life stories that will affect women experiencing the classic competitive forces of work, family and faith. This long-overdue discussion, especially for emerging professionals, is compelling and offers practical guidance and ground-breaking insights for women seeking to amplify their quest for personal and spiritual growth. Work, Love, Pray will move the reader to explore a more meaningful balance as life unfolds while reaffirming how important faith is in our lives. What you learn from this book will become part of your conversation with young professional women seeking their own modern pilgrimage who face the same familiar forces. I personally encourage any woman who doubts you can "have it all" to read this book.

Diane's book would have been remarkably helpful during the early stages of my career, however this many years later, I find it luminous and credible. It is an intellectually stimulating, honest and simple book with a powerful message.

I have had the privilege of knowing Diane for many years. Her new book Work Love Pray is a GREAT showing of her spirit. She has had an impact on many people through her life. The impact has been because she is willing to put the needs and concerns of others first. I was able to see that in the years I worked in her organization and watch her in action. Yes you will see what she has accomplished in this book, but better yet, you will see what she has helped others accomplish. That is the true meaning of life how we impact others so they can be who God designed them to be. That is Diane, seeking to show others what they can be.
Work Love Pray was an enjoyable and insightful read that had the bonus of allowing me to get to know a friend even better.

We know how valuable a mentor can be for career and life success. However, mentors who can share experience and insights to help balance three important life dimensions - faith, family and career - are extremely rare. As I read Work, Love, Pray, I was amazed at how skillfully Diane Paddison was able to draw from her own experiences as corporate executive, mother, wife and devoted Christian to provide valuable guidance for young women beginning their careers and the challenging balancing act that follows.

Like a great mentor, Paddison does not preach or direct. Rather, she shares her own triumphs and heartaches with humility and candor, and poses thought provoking questions for her "mentees" to consider and explore. She doesn't shy away from sensitive, yet important topics that are too often glossed over in other forums. Reading each chapter feels like a powerful mentoring session with someone who speaks from the heart and wants only the best for the reader.

This is a book I will recommend frequently and share with my college age daughter. Although targeted for young Christian women, I believe Work, Pray, Love would be valuable for any woman looking to balance her career and family goals and navigate the workplace with integrity and grace.

The timing of this book is perfect. After reading it I bought two more copies. One copy is for my 23 year old granddaughter who just got married and is pursuing a career in nursing. The other copy went to her sister who just turned 21, is a senior in college, has already been offered an excellent position with Target and who is very much looking forward to falling in love with the right man.

The first great benefit of this well written book was that it helped me better relate to some of the realities my granddaughters are facing (selecting the right man, achieving a successful marriage/family while both husband and wife have jobs, selecting the right career, being successful at work, finding balance in your life, etc. However, the most important benefit of the book is that it offers the potential to significantly help my granddaughters and other young women to navigate those and other issues.

Frankly, I think the book being labeled as "Practical Wisdom For Young Professional Christian Women" is much too restrictive. My feeling is that it is a must read for all young women -- regardless of their religious beliefs!

I finished the book this weekend and frankly have a problem with it. It says, right there on the front cover, that the intended audience is Young Christian Professional Women.

Simply put, I thought the book was fantastic. I'm a bibliophile and rarely say that about any book! I so agree with what the Prof from Michigan State says in the earlier review. The book is very inspirational, practical and honest. It is rare to find a book with all three.

However, the problem I have is that the audience described on the cover is far too narrow for such a great book!

I think that any husband of a current or former Christian businesswoman should read this book. I am one of those and it gave me extremely valuable insight into the mind of my wife.

Also, if any one has a daughter that is a junior or senior in high school OR a daughter in college...they should have their daughter read this book. They will be inspired and given invaluable counsel on the journey they have yet to begin. Counsel that will both help steer them in the right direction and, more imporantly, steer them away from things that can lead them astray.

The book's format is excellent for starting discussions that help professional women reflect on their values, their metrics for success, and how to live lives aligned with their purpose. Very well written. A personal story that has implications for many.

I have read many books about we woman who work so hard to have it all. These books will cover work, marriage, children, our place in the community. This is the first book I have read which addresses how we keep faith at the top of that list. Though it is written with young christian women in mind, it resonates to those of us who are young at heart. I recommend it highly for women of all ages. I am encouraging my husband to read this so he will better understand what our teenage daughter will face as she grows and enters the workforce.

And there is plenty of it [practical Wisdom] in this unique peek into one persons' life who tries to reconcile family and work.