Karen Stott - An Intentional Life: A Life-Giving Invitation to Uncover Your Passions and Unlock Your Purpose

To love Jesus in the seemingly small and sometimes painful spaces of your day, when loving Him can feel long and quiet, is battle-scarred love. Its enduring, expansive love. Karen Stott lives even more vibrantly in private the words she shares with you and with me. This is rare.

Sara Hagerty ,

author of Every Bitter Thing Is Swee t

With the voice of a friend and the encouragement of your biggest cheerleader, Karen Stott invites you to lean in to your hearts longings and live in the fullness of your God-given purpose, even on the days youre tempted to give up! Sharing her own vulnerable journey as a wife, mom, very successful and sometimes-struggling business owner, Karen offers the wisdom of a mentor and practical tools of a life coach. If you want to know how to navigate the winding path of pursuing a purpose-filled, intentional life while being fully present in every relationship, responsibility, and role you have, this book is for you!

Renee Swope ,

bestselling author of A Confident Heart

Imagine youre journeying through this book with a trusted friend as your heart engages these pages. I trust Karen Stott with my own heart and because of that I can confidently trust her with yours mostly because I know she is trusting all of us to Jesus along the way.

Logan Wolfram ,

author of Curious Faith

Karen is a woman who watches her words, carefully choosing them so they carry the fullest weight when she delivers them with passion. This is the kind of book youll want to pick up when youre wondering whats next or what else there is for you, or how youre going to make it through this day.

Jess Connolly ,

author of Dance, Stand, Run

This book is for anyone ready to step into something better. Spirit-filled and convicting, Karen guides and teaches a generation of women to wake up to the life theyve been given and pursue it passionately without delay.

Hannah Brencher ,

author of If You Find This Letter

Karen Stott knows what it takes to truly live an intentional life. You are going to love learning her amazing story, and you will be encouraged by her heart and her wisdom.

Alli Worthington,

author of Fierce Faith

An intentional life is the one we all want to live but arent always sure how to begin. Im so thankful that Karen leads the way. With writing that is beautifully rich and moving, she invites us into her own story with such warmth, such vulnerability, and such ease that my own heart was opened to receive the profound truths on each page. Karen is a loving guide, unfurling hope and truth that sets a generation of women free and reminding us that we are meant to embrace Gods calling on our lives because we are made to embrace Him. This is a book that will be required reading for my own daughters, and one that I will give again and again to women I love.

Kristen Kill,

author of Finding Selah

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation. 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version. Public domain.

Scripture quotations marked GNT are taken from the Good News Translation in Todays English VersionSecond Edition. Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message. Copyright by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Hand-lettered artwork by Jordanne Van Wert. Used by permission.

Cover by Brian Bobel. Cover lettering by Rachel Jacobson. Cover photograph by Karen Stott

Published in association with the literary agency of D.C. Jacobson & Associates LLC, an Author Management Company. www.dcjacobson.com

An Intentional Life

Copyright 2018 by Karen Stott

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97408

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

ISBN 978-0-7369-7132-4 (pbk)

ISBN 978-0-7369-7133-1 (eBook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Stott, Karen (Entrepreneur), author.

Title: An intentional life / Karen Stott.

Description: Eugene, Or. : Harvest House Publishers, 2017.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017014016 (print) | LCCN 2017034582 (ebook) | ISBN 9780736971331 (ebook) | ISBN 9780736971324 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: VocationChristianity. | ContentmentReligious AspectsChristianity. | BusinesswomenReligious life. | Christian WomenReligious life.

Classification: LCC BV4740 (ebook) | LCC BV4740 .S84 2017 (print) | DDC 248.4dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017014016

All rights reserved. No part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any otherwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The authorized purchaser has been granted a nontransferable, nonexclusive, and noncommercial right to access and view this electronic publication, and purchaser agrees to do so only in accordance with the terms of use under which it was purchased or transmitted. Participation in or encouragement of piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of authors and publishers rights is strictly prohibited.

For Isaac

Because you never stopped fighting

Contents

Do you ever ache for more?

I know. Me too. And it feels strange to say this isnt enough when so much that surrounds me is exactly what Ive been praying for. Or the fact that we have so much more available to us than many people around the world do. All of those thoughts make this nagging ache all the more complicated.

Yet this isnt a contentment problem. Thats an entirely different battle. This is about heart, about calling.

This is about that angst in your soul thats been nagging you most of your life. Sometimes whispering, sometimes shouting.

Its been there, on repeat, and it creates a lingering, almost haunting dream that I can only describe as the voice and heart of God.

The tugs can come from anything, but they always pull you in the same direction. Toward justice, invention, art, the human body, dance, building things, teaching things, fighting for things.

Whatever it is for you, its woven deep. And trying to change it or fight it feels like waging war on your own soul. But what can you do about it?

Everywhere I go I hear people asking about it. Wanting to discover it , and trying to figure out how to find it .