You Matter More Than You Think : What a Woman Needs to Know about the Difference She Makes

by Leslie Parrott

• ISBN13: 9780310324973
• ISBN10: 0310324971
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-01-01
• Publisher: Zondervan

Summary

Bestselling author and marriage and family therapist Dr. Leslie Parrott reveals that each reader is a one-of-a-kind woman who—no matter where she is in life—is already making a unique and powerful difference in this world.

Author Biography

Dr. Leslie Parrott is a marriage and family therapist and co-director with her husband, Dr. Les Parrott, of the Center for Relationship Development at Seattle Pacific University. She is the author of First Drop of Rain and God Made You Nose to Toes, and co-author with her husband of several bestselling books, including the Gold Medallion Award-winner, Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts. Leslie has been featured on Oprah, CBS This Morning, CNN, and The View, and in USA Today and the New York Times. Leslie lives in Seattle with her husband and their two sons.

Table of Contents

acknowledgments	p. 9
prelude	p. 11
a narrow path	p. 15
discovery beach	p. 25
the grinding stone	p. 33
my head is in the dirt	p. 45
squashed cabbage leaves	p. 57
dream venti	p. 67
interlude	p. 83
sea glass	p. 85
band of sisters	p. 93
star and starfish	p. 103
web of connection	p. 115
playing games	p. 127
martha clay	p. 137
interlude	p. 145
human touch	p. 147
ultimate good	p. 155
whisper test	p. 163
too late?	p. 173
anyway	p. 183
interlude	p. 197
compassionate witnesses	p. 199
only seeds	p. 211
barking pig	p. 219
a rare road	p. 229
postlude	p. 235
notes	p. 237
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

You Matter More Than You ThinkCopyright © 2006 by Leslie ParrottThis 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 49530Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataParrott, Leslie L., 1964-You matter more than you think : what a woman needs to know about thedifference she makes / Leslie Parrott.p. cm.Includes bibliographical references.ISBN-13: 978-0-310-24598-8ISBN-10: 0-310-24598-21. Women — Religious life. I. Title.BV4844.P323 2006248.8' 43 — dc222005033566This edition printed on acid-free paper.All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible:Today’s New International Version®. TNIV®. Copyright © 2002, 2004 by InternationalBible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. 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.All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrievalsystem, 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 priorpermission of the publisher.The Paradoxical Commandments are reprinted with permission of Kent M. Keith, ©Copyright Kent M. Keith 1968, renewed 2001.Published in association with Yates & Yates, LLP, Attorneys and Counselors, Suite 1000,Literary Agent, Orange, CA.Interior design by Michelle EspinozaPrinted in the United States of America06 07 08 09 10 11 12 • 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1We want to hear from you. Please send your comments about thisbook to us in care of [e-mail]. Thank you.onea narrow pathI took the road less traveled by,and that has made all the difference.Robert FrostLet’s clear this up right at the beginning. I’m no Mother Teresa,and chances are, neither are you. I used to think joiningthe Sisters of Charity or some other compassionate groupand devoting my life to the poor and suffering was the only realway to make a difference. For a time, I bought nearly all myclothes at secondhand thrift shops and volunteered at a nursinghome and a downtown soup kitchen.With the little money I had, I gave all I could to worthycauses. I even spent a night on the streets of the inner city, allby myself, in an “urban plunge” to get a glimpse of what it waslike to be homeless.I was dead set on finding my way on the road less traveled— and on making a difference.“The road less traveled.”It’s a simple phrase of poetry penned by Robert Frost, one ofthe most quoted poets of our time. This line of poetry is quotedoften for good reason, and I could not resist its pull. Somethingdeep inside me still resonates with these words, even after hearingthem time and again. For who, when faced with options,doesn’t want to take the road that makes a difference?All the difference!Being a poet myself, it’s a phrase I’ve identified with since I wasa girl — about the time I began looking up to significant women.Catherine Booth, the cofounder of the Salvation Army,became one of my heroes. Like Mother Teresa, she wasn’tconsumed by convention and was determined to do whateverit took to make a difference in her eighteenth-century England— even if it was “not the job of a woman” to do so.I’ve always loved her response to an uptight, pious manwho held up his Bible and argued, “Paul said to the Corinthiansit is a shame for women to speak in the church.”“Oh yes, so he did,” said Catherine. “But in the first placethis is not a church, and in the second place, I am not a Corinthian;besides,” she continued, looking at the man’s wife, “Paulsaid in the same epistle that it was good for the unmarried toremain so.”1You’ve got to admire that kind of spunk in a woman. Atleast I do.But I’ve got to confess, I’m no Catherine Booth either.In fact, my life these days is ensconced with all the typicaltrappings of a modern married woman with two childrenliving in the mainstream. These days, you’re far more likelyto find me browsing at Baby Gap for my toddler than searchingthe racks of a thrift store. And you’re more likely to findme sipping a latte at Starbucks than feeding the homeless withsoup at a shelter. Maybe the same is true for you, whateveryour situation. You long to make a difference but feel you don’tmeasure up to many other women.Somewhere between the idealism of my college years andthe pragmatism of real life, I’ve wondered if I’ve forsaken theroad less traveled altogether. After all, how can I make a differencewhen some days I can’t even find my keys?We all have those days where things go wrong.Like the day I was on my way to the grocery store when Iglanced in the rearview mirror and saw that my five-year-oldhad fallen fast asleep.My mind sifted through the possibilities . . .I could wake John up when we get to the grocery store . . . butthen he’ ll be really crabby, and once he’s awake, he won’t go backto sleep.Or I could just turn around, take him home, and tuck himinto bed since Les is working there. I could grocery shop just thatmuch faster.I knew Les was hard at work on a deadline, but it was morelikely that John would sleep at home than in the grocery cart.So I returned home, carried John into the house, tucked himinto bed, and alerted Les to the fact that he’d be in charge ofour little one for a while.I sped back to the car with the kind of urgency that only amom trying to fit in multiple tasks during a child’s naptime canentirely identify with. Jumping into the driver’s seat, I shiftedthe car into reverse, backed out of the garage . . . and promptlyripped the door off the car.The door I’d forgotten to close when I’d carried John intothe house.The ripping and tearing sound sent Les bolting out of hisstudy, which is directly above the garage.

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Excerpted from You Matter More Than You Think: What a Woman Needs to Know about the Difference She Makes by Leslie Parrott
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