Deanna Doss Shrodes

Did you know that God works on your problems while you sleep?   I was comforted by this thought when I glanced through a book my husband recently gifted me with entitled, Blessings for the Evening . It's a coffee table book of sorts, nothing real heavy. I didn't read from the beginning, instead choosing to open to a random spot in the book. I found this gem: May you find a moment of peace and quiet tonight to thank God for all that is right in your world. May you have the presence of mind to release your cares and worries to Him. May you have the gritty faith to grab a firmer grip on His promises to you. And may you wake up in the morning knowing that you've gained ground even in your sleeping hours because God is always moving on your behalf. As you entrust your whole self to Him today, He'll get you to where you need to go tomorrow. He is faithful. "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. "...

I'm writing this post today because I don't personally need more income. Don't get me wrong, I could always find uses for money. But my point is, our family income is just fine. But at one time, it wasn't. And only someone who is making a decent salary can write this kind of post, otherwise it's taken as  begging for money. Photo Credit: ccstbp, Flickr Many years ago a woman in the church  where we were pastors at the time came to me with a box of things and said, " Pastor Deanna, I want to donate this to a family in need at the church, and I know you'll know exactly who needs it and who to give it to..." I thanked her. Once she left the room I peeked inside the box and said to myself: "We are that family." I took the box home and our family utilized the contents. At the time we may have been the most financially disadvantaged family in the congregation. We qualified for food stamps. Our kids qualified for free school lunches...

Leaders have to face various obstacles along the way to our destiny in order to prepare us for the greatest things we will do. I Samuel 17 is about David facing Goliath and in verses 34-37 it talks about him killing the lion and bear in preparation to face his giant, Goliath. David had a great destiny before him in not only becoming the greatest worship leader/psalmist who ever lived, but also a king and a man after God’s own heart. David wasn’t sadistic, and he certainly wasn’t killing just to kill. The lion and bear were coming in to steal a lamb from his father’s flock. He had to protect the flock. And so he destroyed the lion and the bear. When I went first into the ministry, I never realized how much I would deal with bears and lions. I just expected to love people. And I imagined, they would just love me back. I was quite surprised that much of my work would involve warfare. Not only did I get tired, but sometimes I thought I wouldn't survive the struggle...

People's failures teach us as much if not more than their successes. One of my greatest failures happened because I refused to use one of my greatest strengths. Resilience: My Personal Uzi I've always been resilient. Had to be. It's a story bigger than one blog post. The crux of it is, I learned pretty early in life that I could be resilient or die. My former boss used to joke that while other employees were complaining about something that happened, I had already formulated a 10-point strategy to come back from whatever took place and was passionately trying to sell everyone on it. Why Some Leaders Don't Move Forward A lot of leaders stay down too long after a hit. Staying immobilized for too long impedes a comeback. If something bad happens in the course of my job, I usually blow off steam for no longer than a few hours. Then, I pray about it and work hard on quickly creating and announcing a new plan -- that day. The goal is move f...

 H appy women have standards and keep them. Not only does it show that they aren't desperate but they spare themselves a tragic choice by having lowered them.    Happy women reject the lie that finding "the perfect man" will make them happy. Please stop with the Facebook posts about how this new man who is your soul mate has met your every need. I write this not to man bash. I love men, especially the one I'm married to. Although there are great guys on the planet, they don't exist to fulfill our every need. Only God can do that. There are so many lessons we can learn from Eve, and one is that and one is that even with the "perfect man" a woman is still not satisfied.  Men are a blessing in our lives but whenever we become dependent upon them for our happiness we are in for a fall.   Happy women realize that a bad mood or attitude is not going to change anything for the better. Happy women don't try to bring change through negative emotions ...

Have you ever been surrounded by lots of people, yet felt like the loneliest person in the world?  Me too. I've heard lots of people say they have, including many ministers.  The issue isn't whether we're surrounded by people, it's about a heart-connection. Kindred spirits.  Understanding on a deeper level.  We do need community -- and God has created us that way. But it's not community that I'm thinking about today.  I used to feel an ache as a woman in ministry because although I was surrounded by  people, few if any knew the weight of that which I carried.  The issue wasn't whether I could find someone to go out for coffee with. There were those who gave invitations, but sometimes I didn't feel the level of trust or understanding to share with them.  What God showed me was that I needed to reframe the issue of loneliness.   I saw loneliness as a bad thing.  A horrible thing.  Somethin...

Jordan took this photo when I was a little rough around the edges A few weeks ago I woke up and was so irritable I was banging stuff around on the counter top in the bathroom while I was getting ready for the day. Even the dogs were steering clear. Yep, I have days like that. Just keepin' it real. I am not a Pentecostal Mother Teresa. My husband asked me what was wrong and I confessed that I was angry at the lack of solitude to recharge. I couldn't remember the last time aside from reading my Bible or praying that I had  any quiet time to refresh. The previous day we had a few hours off and instead of standing up for my need for solitude, I followed Larry's suggestion to spend some time with friends. This wasn't his fault. I never spoke up and just went along with his suggestion without ever bringing up how I was feeling. He couldn't fix what was wrong because he didn't even know what was wrong.    Extroverts vs. Introverts A lot has been circu...