Deanna Doss Shrodes

Are you totally itching to get speaking invitations? Here's something you might want to think about. Time Out I took the summer off from traveling to speak outside the church. Even before my natural mother got diagnosed with cancer or passed away, I did this because I needed a time out. It wasn't a hard decision to say no to invitations, because home is my favorite place to be. I had no aspirations to go anywhere in 2014, except for my preaching trip to Africa which is already scheduled. I'd be perfectly fine should Jesus just decide to keep me here. It would be nice to not have to flat iron my hair yet again.  But this past week people have started to reach out to me about scheduling for the months ahead.  So I'm open, and praying and saying, "Whatever you want, Lord."

Recently I wrote this post about communicating  (with mentors, leaders, your boss, etc.) in order to get the help you want. It's all about finding the person's sweet spot of communication. Many people never consider that a variation of this also works in marriage. Truth be told, there are a plethora of additional ways you can communicate with your spouse that you don't have at your disposal with others. Today I'm encouraging you to maximize the potential of every type of communication that is available. If for no other reason, I beg you to try something new because your marriage is worth it. The truth is that we are often stubborn and want to communicate in our sweet spot all the time. I'll admit it -- I'm lazy in this regard. I want to communicate in my preferred method, just like most people do. I adore my comfort zone. I'm sure you are crazy about yours too. Why leave your communication comfort zone? There's something you desperately want ...

  "It was difficult to keep listening to a liar all morning..." My husband said this to the pastor we worked with at the time, after the kickoff of the church's weekend marriage conference. It's important to note, the pastor wasn't the speaker!  Our pastor we worked with at the time had brought a ministry couple in to speak for the weekend and after the first session, asked the staff members our impressions of how things were going. My husband formed a strong opinion almost immediately after the guest minister started speaking because he said, "I just want you all to know, we've got such a strong marriage, my wife and I haven't had even one argument in over twenty years!" My husband leaned over to me and whispered, "Either he's a bold faced liar, or the marriage is completely dead and they haven't had a real conversation for 20 years..." Larry's suspicions were right. I'm not sure if the guy was a liar or th...

Yesterday I shared five big mistakes I made as a wife . It seems people always find it interesting to read about people's failures. My blog stats were high yesterday so apparently people are curious to see where I've messed up. I thought some of you may also want to know what I did right. It wasn't as easy to come up with this list, but here goes...   I prayed for my husband. There are times the enemy has sent assignments to destroy us and prayer has saved the day and our marriage.  I've prayed for Larry as a man, a husband, a father, a pastor, a leader. Sometimes it's been with his knowledge, many times not. Lots of times it was with my hand on his shoulder in the middle of the night, quietly praying. Other times I laid on the carpet face down and cried out to God for him. By the way, the best book I ever read on this is The Power of  a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian. Get it. I kept my own walk with God strong. One day I will answer to God for my spi...

Ask her this today. All five of these words together. It's so basic. But it's so needed. And you might not have done it in a long time. And she needs to hear it. Here goes:  "How was your day today?" She wants to hear this question. And she wants you to listen. Really listen. And if she shares her problems, she may not want you to do anything about it. (I know, that's soooo frustrating!) She just wants you to listen. And if you sit close, and stare into her eyes intently, it's all the better. And if you connect with her and refuse to answer your phone or text the entire time, it's other-worldly. Try it. She'll love it. I promise. 

I got a total shockeroo earlier this week. Today I'm going to share something I believe is valuable for some of you who, like me, never knew this existed up to now.   Earlier this week, someone made me aware of "Other Messages" on Facebook. I never knew there were anything other than just plain ol' Messages. Did you? I read mine and was absolutely stunned by what I found. "Other Messages"are ones people who are not your friends on Facebook may send you, in an effort to get in touch with you about something. Or people you have deleted. Or people who have deleted you. And I'm not sure who else, but in any case, there are probably "other messages" out there waiting for you. Now, I know you might not care about people who have deleted you or who you have deleted, but there are some other folks that you really might want to hear from. Once I was made aware of my "Other Messages" I promptly went there and could hardly believe my eyes....

Ever get messages that make you want to reach through your computer and choke someone? For me, this would include occasions where people e-mail me in the morning and by afternoon are sending another e-mail asking why I haven't responded yet. It happens to me all the time, no exaggeration. No one has done it to me today probably because everyone knows I just got back from vacation and am plowing through mail and an assortment of other things. Last week while I was away my friend Melissa Kelly graciously stepped up to handle my blog and Facebook for me. I know you may wonder, "why do you need someone to handle your facebook? Has facebook become so important you need someone to manage it while you are on vacation?" The fact is that blog traffic is very dependent upon facebook updates and I wanted my guest bloggers last week to get the most traffic possible. These ladies had something really important to say and I wanted everyone to be aware of it. So I asked Melissa to ...