Deanna Doss Shrodes

So this month a lot of my friends are doing the "30 Days of Thanksgiving" on Facebook and I've jumped on the bandwagon. It's cool to pick something to be particularly thankful each day and share it. I love doing that even when it's not November. I realized a long time ago that my marriage improved a lot when I was grateful. I'm telling you that even if you're in a rough patch in your relationship, there is something to be grateful for. If you don't know what it is, ask me. I dare you. I'll help you uncover something to be thankful for in what you may believe is a pathetic marriage. Sometimes all you need is a tweak in your perspective. How about starting with your husband or wife's work? Significant time is spent on our work. We all derive value from what we do. So zero in on this sensitive area, and be a blessing to your mate. Try this: "Thanks babe, for how hard you work for our family. It means so much." [Please. Stop wit...

There is nothing more important than faith and family. Nothing. Yesterday I felt led to speak into a young couple's life, who are dating. They really seemed to appreciate it and drank in my words like they were a  Slurpee! I find most youth are like this. They long for someone to courageously say the things that need to be said. Mothers and fathers in the faith...this is our time to step up, not shrink back! Married couples need support. Who can successfully stay married without a support network? Not many people. It not only takes a village to raise a kid, but in my humble opinion it takes a village to stay married. :)  Who will courageously say the things that need to be said about marriage? Count me in. Parents need support. Never has it been harder to be a parent than it is in today's world, especially if you are endeavoring to raise Godly children. We are living in a time of acceleration when it comes to  secular values. But does that mean we Christian paren...

Last night was the Celebration Church Thanksgiving dinner. It's one of the highlights of the year. After we share d a fabulous meal together, our worship team rocked the place and then people had opportunity to share what they are grateful for. Our son Jordan was one of the first people to come to the microphone and speak. Before sharing about his new job he pointed to Larry and me and said: "I'd like to thank God for these two people, for the privilege of growing up in their home, and having them as parents." Shortly after, our son Dustin (who is now the youth pastor at our church) got up and the first words out of his mouth were, "I'd just like to thank God for my family..." Wow. So, of course no matter how many times I hear stuff like this it just makes my buttons bust. (Well, that and all the weight I've gained...) After the boys spoke, I began thinking: what makes a family great to be part of? What makes a house a home you can't...

It's been a while since I've written anything about my kids. Okay, so it's actually only been since October 29th. A lot of people comment about how amazing my kids are. No argument there. They rock. Mostly not because of me. I've actually made a ton of mistakes. Nevertheless, people ask me, "how do you raise kids that grow up to be Christians? How do you guide them into developing Godly morals that they actually keep into adulthood?" I don't claim to be an expert and beside the point, I've only raised three kids. Well, I've actually raised two to adulthood and one to teenage years to be perfectly technical. But these are five things that have helped us thus far: 1) Don't just talk about Jesus. Live Jesus. It's more caught than taught. 2) Love the heck out of them. Love covers a multiude of sins . I'm a terrible sinner at times , but I sure do love my kids.  3) Go to church with them, don't just drop them off. And once y...

Larry and I noticed something a long time ago in our relationship. Rarely do we ever argue about issues that involve only the two of us. Most often, we're upset about someone else's issues that touch our lives in some way. The discussion of those problems has the potential to bring us to an impasse. Translation: a knock down drag out argument, minus violence. Larry calls everything we fight about aside  from things that exclusively concern the two of us, "rickle rackle." It's his own special label for it. Rickle rackle:  an argument that would be non-existent if it was required to only be about us with no other person or thing involved.   Reviewing everything we've ever argued about, we realized that's pretty much...everything. For us, this was an amazing revelation. When we finally realized that what we fought about had almost nothing to do with the two of us, we were able to see that we were allowing outside forces to pull us apart. So...

Today I'm blogging at the Pastoring Partners Network on the topic, "Pastoral Pride Will Kill You." I invite all of my friends who are pastoring a church to learn from my mistakes. :)  Have you heard the definition of wisdom? It's the benefit of experience without the pain of mistakes. I'd much rather learn from other people's mistakes than go through the pain of my own. Okay, so the topic of pastoral pride is heavy. I'm glad today's my day off!  :) It's Fun Friday and my man and I have plans for some much needed down time. It might be just a few hours, but it will be soooo good. We've got some work to do around the house to prepare for some company we're expecting for Thanksgiving, and we're so blessed to be spending time today with our former children's pastors, Trinity and Misty Mackley, who are coming into town for the weekend. Oh how we looooooove our Mackleys!! They might have left Tampa but they never left our hearts ...

Today I'm blogging at Lost Daughters , in a post entitled, The Unexpected . We're discussing things people would never expect about living as an adult adoptee. This is my last post in the NaBloPoMo series for National Adoption Month.  But... I encourage all my readers to stop by Lost Daughters each day during the rest of the month to read what the amazing bloggers at Lost Daughters are writing.  Together, the sisterhood is changing the world!!  I am so thankful for the life-changing team there and the difference we're making. We not only serve as agents of healing in one another's lives, but we are working for reform. And we shall succeed!