Barna Group - Wonder Women: Navigating the Challenges of Motherhood, Career, and Identity

ZONDERVAN

Wonder Women

Copyright 2013 by Barna Group

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Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

ISBN 978-0-310-43330-9 (softcover)

EPub Edition DECEMBER, 2013: ISBN 978-0-310-43340-8

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Cover design and interior graphics: Amy Duty

Interior design: Kate Mulvaney

Printed in the United States of America

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CONTENTS

BY BARNA GROUP

BY KATE HARRIS

BY ANDY CROUCH

These days, you probably find yourself with less time than ever.

Everything seems like its moving at a faster pace except your ability to keep up.

Somehow, you are weighed down with more obligations than you have ever had before.

Life feels more complicated. More complex.

If youre like most people, you probably have lots of questions about how to live a life that matters. You feel as though you have more to learn than can possibly be learned. But with smaller chunks of time and more sources of information than ever before, where can you turn for real insight and livable wisdom?

Barna Group has produced this series to examine the complicated issues of life and to help you live more meaningfully. We call it FRAMES like a good set of eyeglasses that help you see the world more clearly... or a work of art perfectly hung that invites you to look more closely... or a buildings skeleton, the part that is most essential to its structure.

The FRAMES Season 1 collection provides thoughtful and concise, data-driven and visually appealing insights for anyone who wants a more faith-driven and fulfilling life. In each FRAME we couple new cultural analysis from our team at Barna with an essay from leading voices in the field, providing information and ideas for you to digest in a more easily consumed number of words.

After all, its a fast-paced world, full of words and images vying for your attention. Most of us have a number of half-read or read someday books on our shelves. But each FRAME aims to give you the essential information and real-life application behind one of todays most crucial trends in less than one-quarter the length of most books. These are big ideas in small books designed so you truly can read less but know more. And the infographics and ideas in this FRAME are intended for share-ability. So read it, then find someone to frame with these ideas, and keep the conversation going (see Share This Frame on ).

Furthermore, each FRAME brings a distinctly Christian point of view to todays trends. In times of uncertainty, people look for guides. And we believe the Christian community is trying to make sense of the dramatic social changes happening around us.

Over the past thirty years, Barna Group has built a reputation as a trusted analyst of religion and culture. We offer cultural discernment for the Christian community by thoughtful analysts who care enough to tell the truth about whats really happening in todays society.

So sit back, but not for long. With FRAMES we invite you to read less and know more.

DAVID KINNAMAN

FRAMES, executive producer

president / Barna Group

ROXANNE STONE

FRAMES, general editor

vice president / Barna Group

Learn more at www.barnaframes.com.

When you think of what balance might look like in your life, what do you imagine?

If there was one area of your life you could improve, what would it be?

What does the word vocation mean to you?

If you could sum up your life your roles, passions, the many hats you wear in one sentence, what would it be?

Where do you feel most alive in your life? Where do you feel most drained?

How has the church helped you make sense of your personal calling? In what ways has it supported the work you do as a woman, wife, mother, employee, creator, and so on?

When you think about what you want your life to look like, what do you picture? How is that different from the life you are living now?

Priorities vs. Time

We dont always get to spend the most time on the things that are most important to usa source of frustration for many people. Generally though, women are able to dedicate their time in alignment with their priorities except when it comes to work.

Whether to lean in or opt out, go to work or work from home, win the bread or care for the kids even have kids or not are the choices women in America today must make.

And theyre not easy to make. For whatever you decide will affect a host of responsibilities, including your family, your faith, your career, your friends, your personal health, and your dreams for the future.

What is Gods purpose for my life? Thats a hard enough question. But when you add the daily realities of grocery shopping, laundry, working out, and sneaking in a Skype business call during nap time or before the latest juice spill, its difficult to see any answer clearly.

The perceptions of others dont make this choice any easier. The ongoing Mommy Wars, expectations of gender roles within the culture and the church, and the cultural cry of having it all only further complicate a womans sense of calling and identity.