Deanna Doss Shrodes

1) How much God loves me.

2) How easily I can feel His presence when things are quiet.

3) How messy the kitchen gets when I'm sick.

4) How one of the things I hate worst about being sick is cleaning the house the day I finally get well. Ey-yay-yay! It still makes me mad each time that it becomes such a wreck, even though after 20 years I should be used to it by now, I'm still not. And each time I ask myself, "Am I just not spiritual to feel this way?" 20 years later, I still do not have an answer to that question.

5) How immature some people are who are my age and beyond. I learn this from surfing the net and reading things I haven't had time to read for a long time, like people's myspace's and I go........and these people are.........how old??? (Not talking about people who are fun or enjoy contemporary things...I am talking other stuff - such as - babyfied head games you expect out of your 13 year old...)

6) How much I miss some people.

7) Why I&…

I have to admit I am feeling a little lonely these past few days. Here I am (above) where I've been sitting for two days...(except for brief trips to the bathroom). In my bed, with the laptop. (Savanna came in and took this pic of me...)

I know loneliness is "God's call to spend some time with Him..." that's how I've always tried to look at it. I've had plenty of time these past 2 days as I've been in bed recovering from the flu. I love solitude when I choose it. These past few days have been forced solitude.

Forced to miss church.
Forced to miss Missions Convention.
Forced to miss staff meeting.
Forced solitude is just not the same as chosen solitude.

And then when Larry has come home, he hasn't spent much time with me at all. Hockey games are on a lot and he's been doing that the majority of his time when not working . Because I'm not feeling well I can't just do what I normally do when he does that. I normally don't care wh…

Well, I missed church ALL DAY. Today of all days. The missions convention with Robert Solomon. I can count the number of times I have missed Sunday church (aside from vacation) over the past 20 years on one hand. To my knowledge, as far back as I can remember...I've only missed once Sunday for each of the births of my kids, and then for my gallbladder operation. That was it. It's not just because I'm a pastor/pastor's wife, but as you can tell by my previous posts, I simply love the house of the Lord. Today was a miserable day. Just being honest. Prepare for my Psalm. My imprecatory Psalm...O LORD, HEAR FROM 5036 SPECTACULAR BID DRIVE, AND HEAL THY SERVANT...FOR I AM WEAK, AND EVEN MY STOMACH HURTETH AND THOU KNOWEST THAT MY INWARD PARTS ARE WRETCHED IN PAIN.............. :-)

When my alarm rang this morning I felt dizzy. I went out to the kitchen to turn the coffee pot on, and things started spinning and suddenly I felt "chills." I called to Larry and said,…

Today is Jordan's birthday! My little peach is 16! (I have called him "Peachy" among many other endearing names forever. This particular one since he was just a toddler and had a head that was like peach fuzz. Thus, the name 'Peachy".) He still doesn't mind when I call him that. Even though his head is ANYTHING but like a peach anymore as you can see here.

Can you believe it?

He's 16...has a driver's permit...

Life is absolutely CRAZY right now.

He's still at PK retreat right now but when he gets back, I'll kiss his sweet little face and tell him how much Momma loves him and is proud of him for just being alive this long. (You would have to know our history of how hard it's been to keep him alive and well for 16 years.) We're having a party for him later on this month since he was away at PK retreat on his birthday weekend.

Translation: My husband won't kill me for posting this, but it's something he'd just shake his head at, and go..."but why?"

Answer: Because it's my day off and I just like laying in bed on my laptop posting mindless things like this. Speaking of that... 

1) I would love to just live from my bed...working in it, playing, talking, have friends come sit with me and have conversations, you name it. I would never get out of it except to come to church if I didn't have to...not because I'm lazy. (hardly!) In fact one day I worked eight hours straight on my laptop from bed. It's just that I am comfy here and work well in solitude. But if I had my druthers... you know someday when I'm really old and might not be able to move around anymore, I could make some money just laying here writing. If anybody still wants to read what I say. (The counter on this blog indicates a lot of people do read this, even every single day or repeated times a day for some …

Last night I was reading in my devotional by Oswald Chambers and he said, "When you yield to something, you will soon realize the tremendous control it has over you. Even though you say, "Oh, I can give up that habit whenever I like," you will know you can’t. You will find that the habit absolutely dominates you because you willingly yielded to it. It is easy to sing, "He will break every fetter," while at the same time living a life of obvious slavery to yourself. But yielding to Jesus will break every kind of slavery in any person’s life."

It reminds me a lot of what I learned in weight watcher class this week...about the WHY of emotional eating. The longer I'm in this thing the more I realize, it's a spiritual battle, and not at all about food. 

Something our new leader has been talking about a lot is... "PROGRESS - NOT PERFECTION." That is a truth that has REALLY impacted me a lot. You see, I've always been the type of person t…

1) We cleaned A LOT. Our garage...getting rid of about 10 garbage bags of stuff from Savanna's room...and so much more. Areas that have needed some major attention that we just don't have time for on a regular basis. It feels good to have a lot of this conquered. 

2) I rode my bike at sunset. Some new flowers have sprouted since my last time out there. Beautiful pink and red.

3) It was an absolutely beautiful day here in Tampa. Positively gorgeous. 

4) My Mustang is clean inside and out (yeah, took time for that today too)...even went around to various little smudges and worked them out by hand. Now if I can just not park under trees so much.

5) I didn't overeat at all today. Not even this weekend for that matter. 

6)I'm feeling stronger moment by moment. Thanks Jesus...thanks doc for the meds!

7) Tomorrow is church and we're expecting a great day in the house. Although a few key families have told me they'll be away...no matter...God will be in the hous…

I have coined a new phrase. While I've never heard anyone call it this before, every pastor out there has experienced it. At some point, you have been a "hold-over" church to somebody, and I guess in effect, that makes you their "hold-over pastor." What exactly do I mean by this? Allow me to explain.

A hold-over church is one you go to until whatever you don't like about the church you call home is straightened out. (i.e. the pastor leaves and a new one comes) This is how it works...

Your pastor does something you don't like. The church leadership does something you don't agree with. Instead of working it out, handling as Matthew 18 would have you to, or (gasp!) submitting...planting yourself and growing through whatever the challenge is that is presented to you, you head to somewhere else to worship. You are going to just use this as a "hold-over" until things change in your previous church, which you pray to God happens sooner rather t…

Well, my last post was what's wrong with me, so now it's time to talk about what's right with me! I have so many people who care about me...I am so blessed. Everybody from my church people to my pastoring partners on the web, to people I don't even know read my blog and write/call and say, "are you alright?" Yes, I'm more than alright! God is good. I have a great doctor and Dr. Jesus. Just to prove to you how alright I really am, I am posting this photo that I just took TODAY. Here, you can see how healthy I look. Larry took this photo just for all you friends who are wondering if I am still alive and kicking. YES! Here I am in my front yard, just loving life.

Looks are not deceiving. I really am on the mend. Getting stronger every moment. THANK YOU, EVERYBODY WHO PRAYED. (Keep it up though because satan hates me and I'm always under attack of some sort. This happens when you are the devil's worst nightmare. Worst nightmares for him are people wh…

Well, my doc got down to the nitty gritty once again and discovered what's hurting me.

The tests results are in...(at least half of them) and so far we've found it's a hiatal hernia (see photo at right to illustrate) and...anxiety. I know, I know, you're SHOCKED about the anxiety part. Ha! Ha! I try so hard not to be anxious, I really do. More about that in a minute...
Anyway, she was so sure it was something like this (ulcer or hernia) that she already had me on medication for it a few days before I got the test for it so my symptoms already started improving some. (I've had an ulcer in the past. Sort of comes with the territory of ministry and dealing with difficult people sometimes I guess.) I needed to start getting some sleep and she had to put me on something to take the pain away so I could rest.
Thankfully this can be treated with medication and most of all PRAYER, and so far it appears to be working quite well, and I'm not feeling like I'm havin…

Well everybody keeps asking how I'm feeling and the answer is...better but not completely better. I'm on a lot of medicine so it sort of just keeps me floating throughout the day if you know what I mean...which is fine. I'd rather be floating kind of woozily through life than laying in bed clutching my chest for dear life in between working on the laptop. Sound like a no brainer there. Actually I think the staff might like me even better on drugs. Let's try it another week and see what they think. PD on drugs? Off? What lends itself to better pastoring? We'll let them decide.

Since I had an EKG and everything's cool there, I got back on the elliptical and the treadmill today. I can't just balloon up and gain weight even if I do feel like a mack truck ran over me. I refuse to get out of shape and in fact I want to be in better shape. I still have to lose ten pounds. I'm on my way to that -- lost 5 more pounds last week. Now that I know that nothing'…

REALITY. That's what this blog is about. Welcome to my personal reality blog. Well, I had planned to take some time off today and tomorrow but it's just not to be. So I keep plowing forward. I went for another test this morning first thing, then went in to the office. I would have just had to work from the lap top at home and it wasn't worth it to drive all the way back home plus somebody needed to run the staff meeting since Larry could only be there for 30 minutes of it today. And it was a long one. 

He left the staff mtg. and took Dustin for his senior project at 4:30, which by the way, Dustin totally rocked. He thinks he definitely got an A. So proud of him. 

So I finished up in running the staff meeting, left at 5:30 or something like that, can't remember the exact time but left there and went major grocery shopping. All the while the kids are ringing my cell phone asking what's for supper. I said, "I'm buying it now." So, I come home, and the …

Sunday in the house at Northside came right on the heels of the Inspire Conference and it was a GOOD DAY in the house today. Last week's service was (for me) disjointed, but that was largely due to the way I felt physically. Today things went great...and I attribute this most of all to the power of the Holy Ghost, and...MEDICATION!!! Yes, since some of my physical problems are now being treated, I was able to do better today.

Tomorrow morning I go for some more tests and we will work toward defining exactly what the problems are and how to fix them. God is good. We cancelled leadership meeting tonight and I just stayed home and slept for 3 hours. Sunday morning was about all I could handle...even with drugs. :-) By next week I'm really hoping I'm back to my old self again. That's the game plan, at least.

What a sweet spirit of God in the place today... I just so enjoyed it.

Cathy and Tom ran interference for me today with being able to minister in the areas needed w…

Vicki Yohe and me...at Inspire '07
Speakers from Inspire Conference '07

Well, Inspire Conference is officially over now and I’m back in Tampa. What a time. It was life changing for so many reasons, many of which people would never understand, unless they were walking in my shoes. It was a prophetic weekend to say the least, and is setting the next level for me into motion, and bringing me into Kingdom connections that are needed for that.

Above you can see my photo with Vicky Yohe, who was the worship leader for the conference. Awesome. Of course I’ve known of her ministry before in fact we hosted her at Northside a few years ago. (And – surprise – she’s getting ready to come back! I’m in the midst of setting it up with her right now….) But we really got a chance to spend some time together this weekend, talking, eating, talking about “next levels” in all of our lives. Also pictured above was our speaker team for the weekend. Left to right are Missy Monokian, conference host S…

Well, my session was this morning and went well. I'm really hard on myself, so I'm always analyzing the heck out of whatever I do. Sometimes something can be a blockbuster and I don't even know it. They were responding well during the message and many talked to me afterwards to tell me how it impacted them. One group wants to buy the Intimate Woman books and make it study for their women's group. Always blesses me to hear that this is changing lives and marriages.

Again, the whole morning was a class act from all these people working the Inspire Conference. They treat their guests like gold. You don't so much as have to carry your own Bible or even walk to your hotel room alone.
Had lunch at a place called Salsa with Pastor Sandy and her leaders. And also Vicki and Teri Yohe. Had a WONDERFUL conversation about "next level" things that I'm going through right now and how to navigate these waters of growth and change. God knew I needed this, not only fo…