Deanna Doss Shrodes

I hate okay. Okay reeks of mediocrity. "Did you like that restaurant?" "It was okay." "How was the concert?" "It was okay." Yeah....not appealing. Who wants their husband to say, “My wife is.....okay?” I want Larry to say, “My wife is amazing. She is all that. She’s the best thing ever.” Not, “She’s okay.”  He may as well say, “My wife is hell." Over the years I've asked Larry what I could do to better meet his needs. Sometimes I've failed but I hope I've succeeded more. I don’t want my kids to say, “My mom’s okay.” I want them to say, “She’s the best mom ever. “ My amazzzzzinggggggg kids, Christmas Day 2012 About ten years ago, I asked all my kids  to give me a grade on being a mom. I believe evaluation is very important to improvement in every area of our life, including marriage and family. Two of my kids gave me an A. One kid gave me an F.  Yes, an "F". I fail

Jesus Calling , Sarah Young This was my reading on Tuesday in Jesus Calling . It fit perfectly to strengthen me for the days ahead. During various points in my life people have asked how I've made it through, victoriously. There is nothing like the way God's presence speaks to us, leads us, and gives us grace for the journey. I encourage you, call on Him. He will speak and give you strength that quite frankly, doesn't make sense.   

What if your glass broke?  Really? I've been so sad I wanted to jump off a cliff and it drove me to eat cupcakes. They are still on my thighs in the form of cellulite. My husband doesn't think there's anything perfect about me taking all the covers every night.  I'm a cup of dark roast coffee?  I've read this five times and I'm still going..."What???"   It tells me that something could get into my ears and there's nothing I can do about it. Eeeee!!! What??? Hopefully the creator of this is not working for Hallmark. If Larry said to me, "Deanna, you act like summer and walk like rain..." I'd wonder if he got a few medications in the cabinet mixed up. This is just...gross. What if they were hunted down and killed by the Mob in Chapter 20?  Oh well, I guess comparison still isn't good.   My husband.  He said, "Why are

I've been concentrating on these the past five months or so: 1) Limiting "work on me" to one big thing at a time. I used to try to work on everything about myself at once that needed an overhaul, and it didn't go so well. I'm learning the value of one-thing-at-a-time. There are issues in my life that need major work that I haven't even started on yet. The past five months have been an invaluable lesson I will never forget, most of it focused on one area. When mastered it will hopefully be something retained for life. I get to choose who I'm going to be. How great is that? 2) Being kind to me as work on me. Every day I notice the parts of me that still need work. I don't like those things about myself. But I know they didn't get that way overnight and they aren't going to change overnight. I could hate myself. Talk trash to myself. But what good does it do? It just makes it worse. I'm a human being, with faults and f