Deanna Doss Shrodes

Our kids were "raised in the halls of the church" quite literally.  At one point when the boys were babies we had cribs in the church office.   When Savanna was born we continued the tradition of "raising our kids in the ministry" and she used to do hospital visits with us all the time.  Her favorite ones were when she would get to see the newborn babies. 
I'll never forget her favorite little baby doll, Tieler.  She named him Tieler because when we pastored in Maryland, one of the ladies in the church, Anna Anderson, had her baby boy Tieler and we went to see them in the hospital.  Savanna was with us on the hospital visit and she  just loved him to pieces and so she ended up naming her new doll Tieler.  She took that doll everywhere.  
When we went out she would push Tieler in a stroller.  One time she accidently left him in the car after we came in from shopping and cried and cried that we needed to go back and get him but it was pouring down rain - thunderst…

I hated naps as a child.  Now I'm crazy about them.

The more my responsibilities have increased  the more I enjoy being home.   (By the way, all of these photos are taken at our home.)   The happiest days of my life are spent at home. 
 For the majority of our ministry, I accepted every  invitation I was given.  If there was a party I was there.  If someone said, "come on over" or "let's go for coffee" I pretty much went without exception.    As time has gone on and my responsibilities have increased:  wife, mom, domestic engineer of our home, working at the church full time, working at NextJob part time, writing, traveling and speaking...when I have time off I just want to be home.  A perfect day off  for me looks like this: 

Sleep in.
Wake up to house that I already cleaned in days preceding.  

Brush teeth.

Teeb makes something for breakfast.  (Remember, I said this is the PERFECT day off.  LOL)

Go back to bed and watch a movie and snuggle with the ma…

If you are a single believer who desires marriage, one of the most important things to look for is someone who is sensitive to the things of God.    I wish every unmarried believer who is seeking would realize the importance of finding someone who belongs to Jesus wholeheartedly, who listens to His voice, who finds their sustenance in Him.  

We pastored one young man who had a wish list of attributes that he wanted his future wife to have.  The list included that she love to ski, be an avid rollercoaster fan, and have at least a size "C" bra size.  Somehow being a woman ofprayer didn't make the list among the amusement parks and  tata's.  Believe me it takes more than that to get you through the storms of life.   Proverbs 31 says that charm is deceptive, beauty fades away but a woman who fears the Lord is greatly to be praised.

I got to thinking about this on our anniversary yesterday and something came to my mind that I have rarely if ever shared with anyone but I …

23 years later...
Here's to all our married friends who are still hanging in there with us!  Someone once said that a successful marriage is falling in love many times, with the same person.  I think they're right.

Actual photo I took as I was serving it last night...
Years ago, I made my homemade pizza because we didn't have money to order out.  Now I just make it because it's yum!   Enjoy, and if you have any questions just post in the comments and I'll help you out.
 Pizza Dough 1 cup warm water 1 package active dry yeast 2 cups all purpose flour plus about 1/2 cup more to use as you are kneading and rolling. 1/2 teaspoon salt
Pour the water into a large mixing bowl. Add the yeast, stirring with fork until dissolved. The water should turn a light beige color. Add 1 cup of flour and the salt. Stir with a wooden spoon. Add a second cup of flour and repeat. The dough should start coming away from the sides of the bowl, forming a soft, sticky mass. Take the last bit of flour and sprinkle it over a clean, dry surface. Flour your hands well.  Take the dough from the bowl and begin to work in the flour a little at a time. Use the heel of your hand to push the dough down and push across the s…

I'm so blessed!  There are people in my life who do such nice things for me and for this I am ever grateful.

Wednesday night after prayer meeting, Bonnie came up to me and said she and Todd had something for me and proceeded to hand me a jewelry box.  She said they knew how much I love monkeys so they had special ordered this for me as a gift.   I was wearing one of my animal print outfits and had to take my jewelry off right then and there and put this monkey necklace on and wear it for Fusion!  How adorable!  They also said they ordered a second one for me that is carved out of jade, but it hasn't come in yet.  They are an amazingly thoughtful couple who show me such love and care.

Sometimes just for fun I pretend Maxie is a monkey since he sure does act like one sometimes the way he tears up things in the house.  I know, I'm crazy. 

This Sunday Larry and I will have been married for 23 years. We are preaching a tag team message this weekend at Celebration. We preach together all the time but this Sunday we’re really excited about it being that it’s our special day.

Working hard at marriage has always been important to me because I know firsthand what happens when a family falls apart.   My parents got divorced, and I know that as the years go on it’s not like the pain completely goes away...you just find ways to make it work for you.   The purpose of this post isn't to judge anyone who is divorced, by the way.  I don't speak from a place of judgment, only as someone who has experienced pain and lived to tell about it.

In a landmark study, researcher and author Judith Wallerstein tracked a large sample of children of divorce for 25 years. Wallerstein found that unless there is violence in the home, kids suffer more from parents getting a divorce than staying in a bad marriage. She writes all about her find…

The following are notes from the teaching I presented to my life coaching class this past Saturday.  It's an acrostic -- each point makes up the word, "leadership."  ~ Enjoy. 

L – Love – Passion for people and for what you do.

This should go without saying but the truth is, lots of people go into leadership for other reasons than love or passion. They go into it because maybe their parents were leaders, or maybe they just crave being the leader instead of the follower.  (How many people do you know who say they want to start their own business so they can "be their own boss"?)  The truth is, some are power hungry but have no idea what authority costs.

The truth is that passion and love count for a lot. Coach Paul (Bear) Bryant of the Dallas Cowboy Football Team made the statement, “If I ever quit coaching football, I’ll be dead in 6 months.” He retired from coaching and died 6 weeks later.  He was a man full of passion for what he did.

If you have a love and a …

Yesterday, I posted the link to the podcast from Sunday's message at Celebration Church which was a tag team from my husband and Dustin.  If you missed it, please go here and check it out.  What a fantastic job they did.  So proud of my guys!

I'm catching up on posting podcasts today and for those who missed my radio interview on WSRX 89.5 Praise FM in Naples last month, go here and you can listen to it in it's entirety which is about 25 minutes.  Enjoy!

Click here for the podcast.

It wasn't "my day" yesterday for Father's Day but oh MY, was I ever blessed!

I was expecting a great day at church but I had no idea what was in store.  Worship and everything else went well but the biggest surprise was when Larry came to the pulpit to preach and he said, "we've got something extra special today...I'm going to invite my son Dustin to the pulpit and this morning we're going to present a tag team message!"  You could have just knocked me off my seat.  I had no idea!  They surprised even me and worked on this message without me knowing! 

Dustin has been preaching in youth periodically in addition to  leading worship.  He does have the call of God upon his life and is cultivating that, however, he has not preached in Sunday morning service.  This was a first!  It was amazing!!!  What a job he did.

We are going to be putting the message on the podcast asap and I am going to post the link here when we get it up.  I was hoping to hav…

"I can't help it if I'm lucky...I only wanna be with you..." Hootie and the Blowfish
I asked my husband what he wanted for Father's Day.  He just wants me.  :) 

I thought for sure he'd want to go out to eat.  Aside from going to church and preaching this morning he said he wants to come right home and have a quiet day at home, cooking steaks on the grill and just being together.  He did want to have our friends the Riveras for lunch as well so they are coming, but aside from having these folks here, he just wanted to chill. 

I was so tired after teaching life coaching yesterday -- I had been up extremely late the night before and that really wiped me out.  I came home after coaching and took a several hour nap and when I got up he told me he wanted us to plan to have Father's Day lunch at home.  This would require some work I wasn't prepared for.  Thankfully Savanna cleaned most of  the house and Larry ran to the store to get what I needed and I be…

The majority of my day yesterday was spent just how I love to spend Friday best --  at home in the quiet.   Yesterday I hung out with the dogs and did some things around the house  that I love to do most like cooking!  I pulled out the camera to take some candid shots during our time together.  I am just crazy about my pups, for anyone who hasn't figured it out yet.  

A little too much partying last night...my head is killin' me!
Watchin' Momma cook...lickin' my chops -- smells so good!

Hello Mr. Fishy...how are you today?  Just checkin' ya out.
Alarm just went off this morning...haven't had my coffee or shower yet...
Is this my best side?

Oops!  She caught me!  (This is Maxie...he's always getting in some kinda mischief!)

Yesterday we took our assistant Cathy out to lunch for her birthday.  She wanted to go to Red Lobster, which is somewhere I love to go too.  After being seated the server came to take our drink orders and my husband asked for his usual, a Boston iced tea.  Immediately the server says, "I'm sorry sir, we're out of cranberry juice."  My husband's face displayed immediate disappointment but he didn't complain and responded, "okay I'll have a diet coke."  Then the server says, "no, I'm just kidding, we have the cranberry juice.  I'll bring you the Boston iced tea."  So we all sat there and just sort of went,"mkay...moving right along.  That wasn't really funny but whatever..."

Our lunch progresses and the server continues to do this kind of thing.  With other requested items he proceeds to tell us that they don't have them available...sees the disappointment register on our face and then tells us, "ha ha, jus…