Work Hard And Love What You Do

What do you want to be when you grow up?

In Chapters 7-9 of Work, Love, Pray Diane Paddison encourages young women to work hard, discover strengths, and play to passions. 

Of course, it can take time – even years – to find the right career path.  But no matter where we are in our professional journeys, we can ask ourselves some key questions:

• Do I enjoy what I do?
• What is the next step to advance my career goals?
• How do I gain leverage in the workplace? 

Diane’s advice is smart, no-nonsense, and practical.  Start with what you enjoy.  Start by working hard.  Harder than the person in the cubicle next to you.  In Diane’s words, “no one is going to bend over backward to help a slacker.”

Does this mean you never leave the office early?  That you don’t have a life outside of work?  That you are married to your job?

Of course not.  Diane also encourages us to set healthy boundaries and strike the right balance – both at home and at work. 

I think back to my early years as an associate in a large law firm.  I didn’t have children, I had a supportive spouse, and I instantly loved the practice of law.  So I worked hard.  Probably a little too hard.  I rarely said no, jumped at new projects, and always tackled the opportunity to learn something new.

But I also learned to set boundaries.  I had dinner with my husband almost every night, even if it was late.  I always took my full vacation.  And I decided to embrace technology and abandon “face time.”  (I realize “face time” isn’t a big deal anymore in most workplaces, but prior to the 24/7 technology revolution, hard work was often judged by burning the midnight oil in the office.) So, if a senior attorney or client needed to reach me after hours, I made sure they knew how to find me – and that I’d respond promptly. 

By the time I had my first child, I had built some flexibility into my work schedule.  Sure, I still struggled with the whole concept of balance, but by working hard at a job I enjoyed, establishing credibility, and setting boundaries (in addition to a heavy dose of grace!) I was able thrive at work and at home.

When we “play to our strengths” as Diane encourages, work is an opportunity to live out our God-given talents – not merely an attempt to survive. 

Do you love what you do?  What’s the next step in your career path?  How will you work hard to earn respect and leverage?

[Please join us over at 4Word to continue the discussion]

Why Holiday Feasting Is A Spiritual Act

Credit: Free photos from acobox.com

Are you still feeling guilty about over-indulging at the Thanksgiving table?  And what about the cookies, pie, and chocolates that invade your home, office, and social activities this time of year?

If you’re like me, the holiday feasting has just begun.

Why fight it?  Holiday guilt is for wimps. 

Which is why I’m going to manage the feasting.  Physically, mentally, and spiritually. 

Will you join me in embracing the spiritual aspect of holiday feasting?  Simply put, God loves a good meal.  

I started thinking about this before Thanksgiving.  Pastor Eric set the stage by taking a closer look at Jesus’ infamous miracle – the Feeding of the 5,000.  Did you know that this is the only miracle of Jesus to appear in all four Gospels?

I’ve heard this story dozens of times.  And I’ve always focused on Jesus, the boy with the loaves and fish, the disciples, and the crowd. 

I’ve never really focused on the food.  Nor have I focused on the paramount role of food in the story of salvation.

• The feeding of the 5,000 looks back to the Exodus.  When Jesus directs the crowd to sit down in groups of 50, we flash back to the Israelites in the wilderness.  The similarities – God providing bread and meat to a hungry crowd – is nothing short of divine.  When the Israelites are without food in the wilderness, God provides both manna and quail.  Could it be that Jesus smiles, knowing He will repeat this miracle a few thousand years later?
• The feeding of the 5,000 looks forward to the Eucharist.  Jesus isn’t just filling empty stomachs.  He is giving of himself – the bread of life.  In remembering his death, we celebrate the ultimate feast.  His body.  His blood.  Poured out on us. While Jesus takes comfort in feeding a hungry crowd, He tells his disciples of a greater feast.  “Whoever comes to me will never go hungry.”

Something about food gives us spiritual understanding.  Is it the smell?  The texture?  The satisfaction?

Something about God loves to feed us.  Which means your holiday feasting is a spiritual act.  

Let's get over the guilt.  When you raise your glass this Christmas season, will you join me in looking back to the Exodus and forward to the Eucharist?

Are You Thankful For Work?

During Thanksgiving, we tend to thank God for the same things each year -- family, faith, health, relationships, food, shelter, income, material provisions.

I got to thinking, When is the last time we thanked God for work?

It’s usually not at the top of my list.  Yes, I’ve thanked God for a paycheck, for the security of my work.  But what about thanking God for the ability to work?  Even the privilege to work?

We can learn much from the unemployed. 

Like my friend I’ll call Lisa.  Lisa is a single executive who’s been out of work for 5 years.  Sure, she misses a paycheck – she’s gotten by on savings, unemployment, selling things she doesn’t need, and part-time jobs.
But you know what she really misses? 

Work.

The ability to contribute.  The ability to create.  The ability to care and nurture.

It makes perfect sense.  God is a worker.  We are created in his image.  Of course Lisa misses her work. 

Just last week, Lisa sent me a card and a gift.  I knew she didn’t have extra money, so I quickly opened the card to see what was going on.

Lisa didn’t just find a job.  She found work.  Good work. 

And Lisa was thankful.  So much that she wanted to give -- she went out of her way to thank me for my professional and personal support, even before she received her first paycheck. 

Thanks to Lisa, this week I’m asking myself a new question:  When’s the last time I thanked God for work?

There’s Just Something About A Boy

Mothers of boys, what are the moments you treasure most?  Do you ever wish you could stop time and keep your son little forever?

You can’t.

But you can treasure each moment.

• I wept when my son was born. 
• I cried (hard!) at his first haircut. 
• I trembled with fear his first day of kindergarten.
• I cheered with pride when he slid into home plate.
• No, I’m not yet ready for a teenager.
• Don’t even talk to me about his first date!

Each stage comes with its own hopes, dreams, and fears.  And each stage is beautifully remembered and illustrated in There’s Just Something About A Boy, by Jenny Lee Sulpizio.

In this newly-released children’s book, Jenny Lee Sulpizio captures the hearts and minds of every mother who looks forward to watching her son grow, all the while wishing she could freeze time and keep him little forever.  From conception until adulthood, there’s something magical about watching a son get older – and reading about it along the way.  

There’s Just Something About A Boy is the perfect gift for new moms; it’s also a keepsake book for mothers and sons for years to come.  In fact, I’d love to send you a copy.  Just leave me a comment before Monday to enter a drawing!

Remember, he can’t stay little forever.

I asked the LORD to give me this boy, and he has granted my request. 1 Samuel 1:27 (NLT)

What's Your Story?

Every woman has a story. 

We’ve all gotten to this place in life – the journey to womanhood – with a few lessons under our belts (or should I say under our skirts!). Some of us had ideal childhoods and later learned that the “real world” is cruel and unforgiving. Others of us came to adulthood with some serious baggage – baggage that we’d like to forget about and we certainly don’t want to talk about.

But we all have one thing in common. We’re all saying to ourselves, “No matter how I got here, I need to know where to go next!”

In Work, Love, Pray, Diane Paddison starts off by telling her story. Diane is a farm girl from Oregon who grew up learning the values of hard work and determination. Her days leading peach-picking crews finally paid off when she got into Harvard Business School and landed her first dream job!

I learned from Diane that it’s important to know where you came from. In my case, my hard-working middle-class parents and four older sisters shaped my core values of faith, work and family. (And being the youngest of five siblings explains why I’m always the last to clean up!)

But it’s also important to know where you’re going. Diane encourages young women to think strategically about the future, pursue advanced degrees, and rise above our circumstances – even if we didn’t have perfect upbringings.

One of my favorite stories in the book is about a woman named Erin Botsford. Erin lost her father at a young age, grew up poor and was even charged with manslaughter in an accident that wasn’t her fault.  Even after she paid off her legal fees and worked her way out of debt, she lost every penny to a fraudulent investor! Talk about bad luck. Yet Erin is now a successful mom, wife and business owner.  She doesn’t complain and takes full responsibility for her attitude.

In Diane’s words, “Whether your past is a fairy tale or a horror story, only you can determine how it will play out – as a tragedy, or as a feel-good story with a happy ending.”

So, what’s your story?  What role did faith or spirituality play in your upbringing?  How did you get to this place in life, and where do you plan to go next?

[Some amazing women have already started to share their stories.  Please join the online discussion and share your story over at 4Word.]

Christian Working Moms: Are You Too Quick To Say NO?

Are you too busy for a Bible study?

Let me guess, most of the Bible studies at your church meet during the day – which is terribly inconvenient.  There are a few that meet at night, but nighttime is often when your children need you the most.  And, if you work outside the home, who wants to leave her kids again after she hasn’t seen them all day?

Not me. 

I recently admitted I’m a Bible Study Drop Out.  Even though I tried my best to join a women’s Bible study this year, I just couldn’t make it work.  So I reluctantly quit. 

But that’s not the end of the story.

I received several passionate comments from readers who encouraged me not to give up. 

“Why did you believe you needed the study in the first place?” 


“Did you just want to check off a box to make you feel better about your spiritual life, or is there a deeper need you are ignoring?”


“Why did you really drop out?” 


“Maybe you need a virtual study.”


“You can’t always put your spiritual needs dead last! Is that really the best thing for your family?”


Well said!

You got me thinking.  And reevaluating.

Yes, there are seasons in life – and I bit off more than I could chew by joining an evening study in the middle of soccer season – but this doesn’t mean I need to throw the towel in altogether, does it?

Sometimes we need to prioritize a bit better.


Sometimes we need to say NO.


But sometimes we need to say YES.


I’m happy to say I’ve had several offers to join Bible studies since announcing I'm a drop out.  And I’ve even started attending a Bible study during a lunch break.  No, I haven't figured it out yet.  But I'm re-thinking both NO and YES.

Do you find yourself saying NO too quickly?  If so, have you given yourself the freedom to reevaluate and say YES?

Does TV Feed Your Children Swear Words?

My husband, Doug, and then seven-year-old Nick were watching The Bad News Bears. I was appalled. The language was filthy. These snotty-nosed kids and their recalcitrant coach had no respect for authority or each other, and Nick would soon be talking like a potty mouth if we continued to let this trash into our living room. Suddenly, Devoted Mommy transformed into Fundamentalist Mommy.

“I don’t want to hear that language in our house ever again, and I want that filthy show turned off.” Doug and Nick just looked at me.

I continued, “TV is straight from the pit of hell and I can’t sit by and watch you fill your brain with this garbage.”

Doug may be incorrigible, but I still have to exercise some moral authority over my children. I learned that from my own mother. We had knock-down, dragout fights over Three’s Company and Charlie’s Angels. I would sneak downstairs and watch these shows with my older sisters over my mother’s deep disapproval. (Which was worse, Jack and Chrissy living in sin, or Farrah Fawcett showing her cleavage? I never got an answer, I just knew they were both bad.)

What kind of mother would I be if I let The Bad News Bears ruin Nick’s innocence and lead him down a path of destruction?

So later that night, after I put the girls to bed, I told Nick that we needed to talk. We sat in his bed before prayers, as we do every night, and I explained to him that some things on TV are wrong, and the Bad News Bears really shouldn’t say bad words.

“Did you hear bad words in the movie today?”

Nick responded, “I’m not sure. I know stupid is a bad word.”

Nick is a smart kid, so he saw this as an opportunity to ask me, point-blank, what the other bad words were that had caused me so much concern. Now I was stuck. Fundamentalist Mommy was going to have to feed her own son swear words. So we talked about how “hell” is a bad word, and why you wouldn’t want to tell someone to “go to hell,” because that’s where Satan lives.

Nick asked, “Is it still okay to say ‘for heaven’s sake’?”

“Yes,” I said. “That’s still okay.”

I was thankful he still had some innocence left. And I didn’t have the heart to tell him the other bad words in the show. We’ll save that for another day.

How do you deal with the impact of TV on your children?  Is TV a necessary evil, or just plain evil? Or am I overreacting?

**excerpt from Chasing Superwoman, pp. 21-23

Why I'm Leading The Work, Love, Pray Online Book Club

I’m thrilled to partner with 4Word and host the first Work, Love, Pray online book club.  Care to join me?

Great, let’s get started.  To begin, we’ll answer a few questions.

What are we doing?

We’re going to read – and discuss – Diane Paddison’s newly released book, Work, Love, Pray.  Over at 4Word's Blog.  Every Tuesday for the next six weeks.

For those of you how haven’t read the book, it’s a much-needed resource for young professional Christian women and Working Christian Moms who are trying to navigate their careers, family, and faith.  (See my full review.)

Who is participating in the book club?

Easy answer:  You!

And you don’t have to be a Christian or even a young woman (ages 21-40) to join. (Unfortunately, I’m not in that group anymore….)

Work, Love, Pray is for women of all ages, dads, husbands, and even single guys. 

Gals, are you looking for a safe place to discuss your careers, dreams, and relationships?

Older gals, do you need some help mentoring the young women in your life?

Guys, do you want to understand young women better? 

You’ve all come to the right place!  

Why the book club?

If you haven’t noticed, young professional women aren’t exactly flooding our churches.  In fact, many of them are staying away from church just because they think Christians are out of touch with their lives.  And in many cases, we don’t know what to do with a generation of women who need Jesus more than ever.

It breaks my heart to see young women pulling away from their faith communities.  I want to do something about it, don’t you?  That’s one of the reasons I want to get the word out about 4Word and Work, Love, Pray -- and I hope you’ll join me. 

How does this work?

We’ll be meeting every Tuesday at 4Word to discuss Work, Love, Pray for the next six weeks.  This will be our schedule.

Nov 15:  Chapters 1-3
Nov 22:  Chapters 4-6
Nov 29:  Chapters 7-9
Dec 6:  Chapters 10-12
Dec 13:  Chapters 13-15
Dec 20:  Chapters 16-18

You can leave comments on the 4Word Blog. Don’t worry if you fall behind.  Just come back, and we promise it will be fun!  And we’ll finish up just in time for Christmas!

Any questions?

Bring a friend, and we’ll see you at 4Word on Tuesday, Nov 15!

[For those of you who left me a comment here and on the 4Word Blog last week, please send your address to sdimickele@gmail.com so I can send you a copy of Chasing Superwoman!]

Passionate About Your Work?

How many of you “zone out” while the flight attendant gives safety instructions?  I admit, it’s my usual practice.  As soon at the attendant says, “put your mask on first, and then proceed to put on the child’s mask” I start thinking to myself blah blah blah.

But last week – for the first time in a long time – I actually paid attention.

No, it wasn’t by choice.  It wasn’t because I have good judgment.  Let’s just say the flight attendant – a hyped up, bald man in his mid-50’s –MADE me and everyone else on the plane pay attention. 

Here’s how he did it. 

Passion 101.

“Excuse me, Miss, eyes on me!  Sir, I’m going to need you to put your paper down.  You in the blue jacket, can you please stop talking to your neighbor?”

I almost laughed out loud.  And I could hear snickers throughout the plane.  Who did this guy think he was, and why was he so anal about routine flight instructions?

He went on:

“I run a safe flight.  Period.  There are some simple safety tips you need to know if we have to use them.  Look, I know some of you never pay attention to this stuff, but today you’re on my watch.  Today, your safety is my responsibility.”

The snickering stopped.  The plane became silent.  (Yes, even the babies stopped whining for a few minutes.) 

His passion was obvious.  His tone was one of concern.  And he had a captive audience.

This guy actually cares about his job.  He cares about us.  And if I ever get stuck in an emergency, I want him leading the way!

For the next five minutes, I learned more about flight safety than I’ve learned in every prior flight – combined!  And he didn’t stop at safety.  He went on to check on passenger comfort and even injected some light humor.

“Is the temperature ok for you?  Too hot or too cold?  Does anyone need a bottled water before takeoff?  Everyone know how to work the reading lights?  For those of you who want to sleep, just let me know and I’ll be happy to wake you up when we arrive at our destination.  At no extra charge!”

The flight took off without a hitch, and he proceeded to work about his duties with little fanfare.  I continued to watch him carefully.  He wasn’t intrusive or overbearing, just pleasant and diligent. 

After the flight, I couldn’t help myself.  I had to ask him.  “Sir, I couldn’t help but noticing.  Are you always this passionate about your work?”

He gave me a big smile and replied, “Attitude is EVERYTHING!”

The Apostle Paul describes it like this:

Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ.  (Col 3:23-24)

I wonder, what would our daily work look like – I mean really look like – if we were passionate about our work?

Strong, Believable Characters: What I Liked About Yesterday’s Tomorrow

Are you tired of weak, unrealistic characters who put you to sleep?  Me too. 

Looking for some fresh fiction and strong characters?  Then check out Yesterday’s Tomorrow by talented, first-time author Catherine West.

Yesterday’s Tomorrow is an action-packed love story set in Vietnam.  I read it quickly, probably because I loved the two main characters:  Kristen Taylor and Luke Maddox.

Kristen is a brilliant journalist who is chasing the memory of her late father, trying to break the biggest story of her life.  She’s independent, stubborn, and beautiful.  The envy of every women.

Luke is a talented and mysterious photographer.  He’s the guy we love to hate.  And he’s the guy we hate to love.  Let’s just say he’s a little rough around the edges and easy on the eyes. 

Of course, Kristen and Luke fall in love.  The plot thickens, and they have to decide what’s really important in life.  Relationships? Career? Personal safety?

Here’s another reason I liked this book.  The characters are believable – even human.  Even though this book is written by a Christian author, the faith-based center doesn’t over power the story.  Instead, the characters are allowed to learn through trial and error, experiencing faith lessons through time and circumstances (kind of like real life!).

Sound like something you’d like to read?  Just leave me a comment before Monday, and I’ll put you in a drawing for a free copy.

Have a good weekend!

Christian Working Moms: Join Me Today At 4Word

You know from my review last week that I’m really excited about a new book for young professional women called Work, Love, Pray.

And you also know that I’m supporting 4Word – a national nonprofit designed to connect, lead and support young professional Christian women to live out their God-given talents!

Today, I’m joining 4Word over at their blog.  Check out my interview about my own journey as a Christian working mom and my book Chasing Superwoman.

Leave me a comment today here and over at 4Word and I’ll send you a copy of Chasing Superwoman!