Deanna Doss Shrodes

Well, tomorrow is it...the day I record my CD, or should I say...the day I begin recording my CD at Keith's Dad's studio in St. Pete. I feel differently about this personal project than any other I have ever done in my life (and by that I don't just mean musical project, but any kind of ministry project.) It's difficult to explain, but to endeavor to a bit... This is probably THE most different type of CD that you have ever heard of. And although I'm not striving for it to be musically deficient, quite truthfully I don't care much about whether it sounds like award winning music. It's a lot bigger than that to me. I never thought anybody was going to hear these songs when I wrote them in the first place so I didn't really worry that much about musical excellence when I wrote them. Years ago you would have never heard me say that but today is a different day. Whenever I'm upset about something I can usually be found late at night in my living r...

"The natural can be turned into the spiritual only through sacrifice. Without this a person will lead a divided life." This is what Oswald has to say today in My Utmost for His Highest . (My favorite devo) I believe that in order to get to the supernatural we have to do the natural - to step out and work like it depends on us, but pray like it depends on God. My goal is to do that every day. To not only give an "honest day's work" but an EXCELLENT day's work. A "next level" day's work. Those two things together - praying and working, IMHO, are the keys to a miracle. Larry always says, "Expectancy is the breeding ground for a miracle." I believe that's true but I believe part of expecting is doing something while you're expecting. Tonight was our Christian Education Christmas Banquet - a very special time at the Currie's. Very "next level" - as everything else has been in this 2006 year. With every day th...

"But how do you wait for heaven... ~ Sara Evans and who has that much time... and how do you keep your feet on the ground when you know... that you were born... you were born to fly!" Today is my day off. I'm enjoying it immensely. I went through my calendar and marked down all of the rest of the Fridays in December and claimed them as mine in Jesus name. :-) As a pastor, a day off just doesn't "come". You have to fight for it both in prayer and in the natural for it to take place. Today I woke Savanna up and got breakfast for her and after she was off to school went back to sleep until noon. Honestly, sleep is what I need most on my days off to re-coop from whatever during the week. Most people would not imagine how much pastoral ministry takes from a person when they work this many hours a week.  I was happy to find out when I weighed this morning that I am almost 2 lbs. less. That's amazing with how loose I have been with myself lately bu...

Okay, I have an earth shattering revelation for all of you out there in cyber space. I am different. You read it here first! Okay, so for all of you who are going, "duh, we knew that..." let me say that most of the time I forget this fact. I go around just thinking I am living life, that I'm a "normal woman" and then something comes back around to slap me upside the head and remind me, "Girl...you are one unique chick..." I do have some things in common with other women such as hating to shop for a bathing suit, or having to watch my weight. I love tea shops and Starbucks, and getting new shoes. I love Lifetime TV and sitting on the beach with my toes in the sand. There's a lot of things I am crazy about that plenty of other women are. But when it comes to my call to leadership, my drive and passion and the way I live out the call of God, I am most times out there alone on a limb. All of those other things are fun, but what gets me up in ...

I have learned a lesson on prayer in the last 3 days. Just when you think you've heard it all about prayer... :-) Well, Pastor Max Yeary said something that was an absolutely prophetic zinger in my heart and didn't even realize it the other day when he was sharing in his question and answer session. On the way home I told Larry, "lets agree in prayer on that..." I have to admit to you, what I was praying about I thought might take YEARS of prayer and fasting. In fact, duh, duh, duh (I feel so dumb) I had not even begun to pray about it because I thought it such a large mountain. The facts I cannot describe on an open blog that can be read by anyone. But...suffice it to say it was something weighing me down. So we agreed on Tuesday on the way home from Ft. Lauderdale to pray about it. Last night I spent about 15-20 min in Sanctuary B Room praying before service (for the service) but I also mentioned that request to God...for the first time. I thought it wou...

"You are never too old to set a new goal or dream a new dream." - C.S. Lewis "I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination." - Jimmy Dean So I further honed my initiatives today and I feel good about getting there...having a daily workable, breathable way to be, and to do. Still adjusting, refining and deciding exactly who I'm becoming. Someone once said, "It's never too late to become what you might have been." I am so through with regretting anything I have the power to change. I am so absolutely done with complaining about anything I permit. 

Back from Church Life Cohort in Ft. Lauderdale. Here's Christian Life Center , the church we go to for it everytime. What great leaders there. I love their pastors to pieces - they are in our cohort group and we have learned a lot from just sitting around the table with them and talking. Today we did a Q and A with Max Yeary, their pastor and it was awesome. The only problem was, I think everyone wanted about 3 more hours of it... :-)  You know, I do this sneaky thing all the time...when Doc says, "let's take a comfort break," I usually don't...I run over to ask Max a question that there wasn't time for before. I get all this great info from them, and then when Doc says, "alright, let's come together again..." that's time for my sprint to the ladies room. Ha ha! I don't think anyone has figured out my strategy yet and hopefully they won't. Anyway, I have a way of managing to get whatever info I need -- I'm just tenacious tha...