Deanna Doss Shrodes

So, I had my message done for Inspire Conference and put it to rest and went on to other things. But as usual, as I'm winding down for the evening, God drops a few more things in my head and I yank it back out and start writing all over my "final" copy. I'll re-type with all the changes tomorrow and make another "final copy" so then I can write all over THAT one in my hotel room Thursday night. :-)
Really the copy is never final. God adds things up til the last second, and then during. They have asked me to bring a message they heard me bring before at another conference...and I am. Only when I am asked to do this and I preach something the second, third, fourth (or even more) times, the Lord always tweaks it. 

You'd think it would be easy...somebody hears a message, it totally resonates with them and they bring you in to their church/conference to bring that same specific message, so - what's so hard about this? Just pull the notes back out. Well…

1) Levi's
2) The color pink
3) Secrets of the SecretPlace by Bob Sorge
4) The life coaching class I teach.
5) Boots
6) Flip flops with sequins
7) Edy's slow churned low fat ice cream
8) Preaching
9) Worthington clothes from JC Penney's
10) Anything vanilla scented
11) When one of my kids lays across the bed and talks to me
12) Pretty underwear
13) Coffee and tea shops
14) Riding my bike at sunset
15) Feeling well! (Can't wait for this again!)

Larry has been a great comfort to me this past week while I have been feeling so poorly. Last night he talked to me for a long time about how I'm feeling, and just put his hand on me and prayed for me. That alone brought me so much peace. If I can just lay down next to him, I feel better.

I couldn't wait for him to come home today. I worked from bed all day, on my laptop. Actually finished all my initiatives that are computer related. Anything else that has to be wrapped up here in Tampa before I leave for Orlando, I have to go in to the office and do tomorrow. Everything from packing everything for my product table to making my announcement video for Sunday's service, to just wrapping up all loose ends for Sunday. Part of the difficulty when I go away is that I have to cram everything into a few days work and that is not easy. I'll still come back to a few loose ends Saturday night but that cannot be helped.

I did shower and dress today and even put makeup on but asid…

1) My rice bag heating pad - you put it in the microwave and heat for a few minutes and it smells good and also stays hot for a long time.

2) Coca cola

3) The comfort of my bed.

4) Tylenol PM

5) When Larry comes and sits on the side of the bed and talks to me and just holds my hand for a while or rubs on my back/shoulders.

6) When my son Jordan prays for me. He has such faith and his prayers are often answered. He has always been the one I call in to pray for me when I get sick.

7) If I don't have a headache and can handle it, I like to watch TV a little and catch up on things I've been too busy to see.

8) Popsicles - preferably grape

9) Chicken noodle or rice soup.

10) Listening to worship music or a healing scripture tape.

Today began with my alarm ringing very early in the complete darkness of our hotel room. As usual the room was cold and the bed absolutely cozy and divine. The last thing I wanted to do was get out of it but I stumbled in to the wonderful warm shower and started making my tea, just like I do each day. Then I went downstairs to the lobby and ate breakfast with Gary and Rhonda.

We had a full day of church life co-horts, with Sis. Lee teaching this time (just love her) and Terry Yancey. Larry and I managed to quickly snag Sis. Lee to take her to lunch and talk to her.

Today the teachings were on conflict resolution styles in leadership, and antagonists in the church. Awesome stuff. Stuff I wish I knew YEARS ago. It would have changed my life. But thank God I’m learning it now! It was really fascinating to learn all this and quite truthfully in discovering it, it brings understanding to things I have gone through in the past. Now I realize just how hard some of the things really were to…

In Ft. Lauderdale today/tomorrow for church life co-horts. We had dinner with Greg and Tammy tonight at the Macaroni Grill. Not one of my all time favorite places, BUT - the company is great of course, so who cares? I got a lot of work done today on the way here in the car. Hoping to get another 3 straight hours done tomorrow on the drive home. Larry and I will debrief from cohorts for about an hour first. One of the things I most look forward to is uninterrupted working time. I don't get very much of that unless I'm working from home on Tuesday (even then sometimes I get interrupted a lot). One reason I love to work so late at night sometimes is because in general nobody's calling me at 2 am. So therefore I get some of my biggest projects done at that time. It's one of the only times people aren't saying, "Um, Pastor Deanna...got a sec?" Or, "Mom, I need lunch money." 

It's getting late and speaking of a lack of interruptions, I think I&#…

Too funny!

Happy Sunday everybody!

Had a great day at church. Packing for co-hort. I'm always washing clothes, packing or unpacking these days. But no complaining here. It's A/G (all good).

Such a busy day today. Larry and I did the marriage conference... 

Got the building back in order...

Came home and cleaned up some more stuff at home in prep for tomorrow night's meeting...


Came home in time for Dustin's friends to come over and I served them Paris tea and cookies (they seemed to love it)... 

Ironed clothes for tomorrow...

Went over tomorrow morning's message again with Larry... 

Cleaned some more... 

Now it's time to pack for co-hort...

Snuggle up with the sexiest man in Tampa and the world for that matter...

Wake up to another wonderful day tomorrow. God is good.

I love Fridays. I love my job/ministry, but Fridays are what fuels me to do that even better. Because it's my day with the one I love (besides Jesus). One reason I've grown so protective of it and hate when something interferes with it is because I need it so desperately to energize.

Usually each day I get Savanna up for school, feed her and do anything needed to get her ready, then Larry drives her to the bus stop. Today I did it all and let him sleep. Every once in a while he does that for me and it's a God-send. I thought he'd sleep til at least noon. I was pleasantly surprised.

I was up eating oatmeal ("the right thing to do" as the commercial says...) and putzing around doing a few things and he calls to me from the bedroom and says..."Sassy...(his name for me)....please come back..." Thus begins romp-tastic Friday. Always a good time had by all. (Don't get any ideas, it's just me and him. We're all that's needed.)

So after …

One of my favorite friends, Joy Conley, pastor's wife of Harvest Assembly of God in Lakeland, sent me a questionnaire yesterday to fill out and I thought I'd share the answers here.
1. What time is it? 8:17 pm 2. Name: Deanna Lynn Doss Shrodes
3. What are you most afraid of? Not succeeding
4. What do you drive? Silver Mustang Convertible
5. Have you ever seen a ghost? I have seen the holy ghost move, that’s about it, but that’s enough.
6. Where were you born? Norfolk, Virginia
7. Ever been to Alaska? Yes
8. Ever been toilet papering rolling in decorating trees? no
9. Croutons or Bacon bits? Croutons
10. Favorite day of the week? Friday
11. Favorite restaurant? Carrabbas
12. Favorite Flower? Roses
13. Favorite sport to watch? Skating
14. Favorite Drink? Tea or Coffee
15. Favorite Ice cream: Cake Batter
16. Disney or Warner Brothers? Disney
17. Favorite fast food restaurant: McDonalds
18. What color is your bedroom carpet? Cream
19. How many times have you fai…

No matter how much I prepare for a marriage conference or other speaking event where I'm asked to talk about marriage, I feel I am never "finally" prepared. It's not that I don't prepare and study but I always just feel like there's so much more to learn, include and study. This is a subject I read up on constantly. I start with the Bible because it's our roadmap for life - our absolute standard for living and the answer to everything. I also read anything else that can help me and perhaps expound or explain what the Bible has to say. And...I enjoy statistics. I want to know what's going on out there.

Such is the case as we continue to prepare for this weekend's conference at our church.  Larry and I have done this at many other places but now for the first time we'll do our own church conference. (Although we do a month of marriage/family messages together each February on Sunday mornings, we have always brought someone else in to speak for…

This morning I woke up to a card from my husband on my dresser with a message saying the following ~ “I love you more each day. I can’t imagine a more perfect woman to share my life. [he could have stopped right there, but he didn’t!] As our love deepens with time the sparks glow brighter, the kisses get sweeter, and the days and nights just get more fun. I’m so happy that you’re my valentine, not only because of the great things we’ve shared from the start but because our love only keeps getting more wonderful. Happy Valentines day, I love you forever and ever and then some…Larry.”

[ahhhhhh! After reading this I had second thoughts about coming into the office!] But we did…dedicated working people that we are. When I got to my office I saw that he had surprised me with a bunch of balloons.

What a darling he is.

"Jesus spent the maximum amount of time with those who would bear the maximum amount of responsibility. Even though he fed the 5,000, he spent most of his time with the 12. Even with the 12, he had the inner circle with Peter, James, and, John. Paul, in the book of Galatians, calls Peter, James, and John "pillars of the church” because they were the ones who would bear the maximum responsibility. " Rick Warren

Today I was doing some leadership reading and came upon an article by Rick Warren on church growth. He was talking about moving beyond growth barriers in the church and talked about "loving everybody, but moving with the movers" as he calls it.

I have come to realize that part of pastoring, growing, dealing with criticism, moving forward, etc. is simply in keeping the right focus. Many people fail because of broken focus. There are always going to be challenges, plateaus and criticisms. Part of moving beyond them is taking things with a grain of salt..…

1) Do karaoke. Always with someone - better yet, a pack of people.
2) Re-evaluate my life, schedule, goals, dreams.
3) Stay in bed all day.
4) Call a friend I haven't talked to for a really long time.
5) Leave my hair curly.
6) Wear a really odd color of nail polish.
7) Be silent. 
8) Sit on a covered balcony in the rain.
9) Go on a date in the middle of the night.
9) Laugh so hard I fall off my chair 
10) Travel by myself.
11) Read fiction - but not very often, just every rare once in a while...
12) Go skating.
13) Take a nap with one of my kids.
14) Go to a church where no one knows me.

1) Abandoning myself to God once and for all. What a moment. The best decision of my life. 

2) My first kiss from Larry. Valley Forge Christian College, outside of dorm 6. 

3) My wedding day/wedding night.

4) When Larry got me the Mustang.

5) Pastor Appreciation this past year.

The marriage conference Fri/Sat went well and one of the nice -- and unexpected -- parts was that Larry and I actually got some alone time together. We had a whole lot to do as far as going over things and setting things up but we still had time. Whenever we are at another church or event ministering - either he and I, or me by myself - the priority is not socializing or things for us, but the main thing on the agenda is doing a great job for whatever pastor or church has invited us, and putting our 100% focus on that. So normally I have little time for anything social. But this was an exception as we had a few hours of "us" time.

We had some time at the hotel by ourselves Friday (and not just late night, which was especially nice.) We also had a 2 and 1/2 hour break before the evening vow renewal service, and since Greg had another wedding to perform across town, Larry and I went out by ourselves. We went to the mall and ate a nice quiet dinner together and just talked a …

We are in Cape Coral today/tomorrow, doing a marriage conference at Cape Coral Assembly of God, for our good friends, Pastor Greg and Tammy Cooper. We left this morning after getting Savanna off to school and met Greg and the kids in time for lunch. Of course Greg knows all the great food places, so I have already eaten WAY too much and we have a whole other day here. First he took us to a place called Iguana Mia for lunch and it really was fantastic. He had a wedding rehearsal after that so Larry and I headed back to our hotel, and took a very fun nap. :) Here's a photo from the hotel we're staying at.

So, after one of the best naps I've eeeeever had, we met he and Tammy at the church to set some things up and then headed to yet another place to eat dinner, although we didn't make it there til about 8:30 - 9 pm. What a phenomenal place. It was called Moorings and so unique. Some of the best seafood I've ever had. And a dessert called an Irish Cannoli that was to…

1) Time alone. Space. Breathing Room. 
2) At least one date a week with Larry.
3) Lots of hugs from those I love.
4) Time to write.
5) Reading time.
6) The Word of God.
7) Exercise.
8) A friend's listening and non-judgmental ear - somebody to understand.
9) Grace.
10) Creative outlets. And I probably should add - freedom in creating without judgment - at least at first. Usually when I first create something, people go, "what in the heck is that?"

Proverbs 6: 17-19 "There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers."

Well these are the seven things God hates. So I got to thinking about the seven things I hate. (I only get to pick seven according to my rules tonight, that's why there aren't more. Rules are rules.)

1) Lack of solitude. That is absolutely on the top of my list.

2) Bland writing. My definition of bland are a lot of Christian publications that stay very generic so as to not offend anybody but in doing so, they are really not relevant to anybody. I want to hear from somebody who really has something to say. Even if I disagree with what someone says, I enjoy experiencing a person's passion in their writing. That's why most of the time I do not read the…

1) I love it when I finish a big project and get it off my back. It usually feels like I have birthed a child. Well, I just finished such a project about 10 minutes ago and I feel...incredibly relieved and happy with my work. 

2) I love it when the house is clean all at one time, every single room. Happens rarely but when it does it's cause for an incredible celebration, or at least a latte! 

3) Speaking of that, I love latte. 

4) I love it when I am discipling someone and they make huge strides...perhaps there is no greater fulfillment. 

5) I love taking a bath in my big tub.

6) I love photos

7) I love palm trees.

8) I love it when all the laundry is done.

9) I love Tivo

10) I love the Gaither Homecoming Tour.

...it was the worst of times. What a mixed week. But tonight we had a bright spot...PRETZELS! Tonight, pretzels were a gift of God.

Church is great and usually when it is, home is stressful. Then when home is great, church gets stressful. It seems life in it's entirety is not ever just totally peachy keen. It can't just be one wonderful ball of wax... and I for one don't like that balance of good/bad. I keep praying for that ever elusive wonderful ball of wax!

I decided I was going to re-claim enjoying my children after the stresses of the last two weeks, and do something fun even if it killed us. I say that because you know how you have all these great plans of how you are going to have some "family fun" and then the kids do nothing but fight or disobey and you think, "I'm an idiot to plan this." But not tonight. I was going to INSIST on fun. It was one of those days where I said, "Look kids! We're going to do something fun, and you'…