Deanna Doss Shrodes

Has the thing I'm dealing with gone away? No. However, every day I choose to bless the Lord. I choose to thank the Lord! I choose to share of His goodness! Even though I am going through a great struggle right now, I WILL BLESS THE LORD! HIS PRAISE SHALL CONTINUALLY BE IN MY MOUTH! Thanks again for your continued prayers for my situation.

I may be going through something but it does not totally encompass my life, THANK GOD! I have a praise report today to give of some bright spots that occurred yesterday that were like incredible beaming rays of sunshine onto the darkness that has hung over my life lately.

I walked into the sanctuary last night and a dozen roses awaited me...they are so beautiful. I'll try to take a picture and post later once I get fresh batteries for my camera. In addition to the dozen roses there was a beautiful pink gift bag full of "Moonlight Path" products including the new moonlight path shampoo, conditioner, and oil warmer/fragrancer! It was al…

This was on my little desk calendar for today:

"The God who created, names and numbers the stars in the heavens also numbers the hairs of my head...He pays attention to very big things and to very small ones. What matters to me matters to Him, and that changes my life." - Elisabeth Elliot

I know God cares - theologically I do know this to be fact, I have just not been feeling it too much lately. I have borrowed a bunch of faith from my friends.

Tonight I will be preaching at church and my topic is, "Created for Fusion", and it's going to be about why we in the body of Christ need one another so much. Part of what I'm going to share about is the fact that through other believers we sense and know God's love and care. Author Gary Burge says, "When God's love feels distant or non-existent, the body of Christ's love is real and tangible."

So in other words, even though we don't feel His love directly sometimes and He seems so far away, and…

Lourdes Manners, member of our life coaching group - and official photographer, made this online scrapbooking piece today and sent to me...isn't it adorable? She's the only one missing from the picture because she was taking it... (and we have other members in life coaching but these were the ones who were able to get away to go to Go Girl conference.)
I love my ladies. Yesterday I spoke of the last days and dark times in the ministry. Fortunately my life coaching group is an incredibly bright spot for me! Thank you gals, for being who you are. I love you so much.

I'll admit it. Some days I've just sat in a daze wondering why pastoring is so hard in these days and times. I'm not alone in feeling that way. Every pastor or pastor's wife I know feels the pressure. Well, today I took time to read through I Timothy, II Timothy and Titus...the pastoral epistles. This is basically the handbook on pastoring. I make a point to read through it several times a year and keep reminding myself of things again and again and again. (The Word leaks out of me...gotta keep putting it in...)
Each time I read the pastoral epistles I get many new things out of them. Today while I was reading it, I was struck with this thought:
Is it any wonder why pastoring is so hard today?
The pastoral epistles point again and again to why it is so hard! We are living in the last days!
Get this:
II Timothy 3:1-9 "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient …