Deanna Doss Shrodes

For a number of years now , I have selected a word for the year as a theme. This year, I was delayed in settling on a word. Evidently I'm not alone. I have talked to several friends who said they didn't have their word of the year by January 1. After much deliberation, my word for 2017 is grace. "But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Corinthians 12:9   Pastor James McDonald says: "You never really experience the grace unless you see the need for it—and even that realization comes by grace. The power of Jesus' grace is not fully seen until weakness is fully acknowledged. The moment you are overwhelmed with your absolute helplessness is the moment you are ready to hear Jesus say, I’m all the grace you need." Without God we'd all be sunk, in general. But there are ...

Writing about some things can cause you to lose everything, or nearly everything. I've written a lot, and I've lost a lot. I've also gained. But the losses tend to stick in your mind more with anything. So we avoid loss if possible. It's called "loss aversion" and it's real. Reading about some issues is rare simply because people are scared out of their mind about what will happen if they write openly about it. If you dare to write about some challenges in a public setting, the consequences can include loss of relationships, job, income, and a lot more. I'm going through a challenge at this time in my life that is quite common. Although it is normal, I hear it is one of life's greatest challenges. Due to not wanting to experience further loss that what I'm already experiencing, I'm not going to share what the issue is. But I will say this. I've combed through Amazon to find even one book about it. I have surfed the interne...

THRIVE 2016 is now over and what a time it was! I am trying to be a better leader in the area of what to do AFTER an event that I lead.  For most of my years in leadership and ministry, I would scarcely celebrate or focus at all on what just happened and would go bolting head first into the next event at 500 miles an hour. A few years ago I asked myself why. There was an urgency to get things done and get busy on the next thing. BUT, I realized I was doing myself and my team a disservice by racing into the next thing without celebrating the last thing. This season is particularly challenging because I am leaving in two weeks with members of our team for Africa for 16 days. I feel an urgency to race ahead but I am holding myself back from doing that. Here are five things I've found it's important to do: 1) Celebrate I have observed that Pentecostals in particular seem to be not-so-good at this. I think part of it is the admonition that is banged into all of our h...

God knows my name. And on strategic weeks like this one - the week of the THRIVE Conference,  I feel like every demon in hell knows my name too.  Every year at this time, things come seemingly out of left field and pelt me until I feel like a wrung out dishrag. Souls are in the balance. The enemy is fighting hard. Last year at THRIVE over 50 women made decisions for Christ, several hundred women were filled with the Holy Spirit and there were too many healings to count. Believe me, satan (I refuse to capitalize the loser's name) is not happy about this. Our team has fasted for 30 days this year just as we did last year.  I am not surprised that the hordes of hell seem to know where to find me.  Fortunately I have some prayer warriors on speed dial. There is none greater than my Dad. My Dad and Me My father is a person who gets up really early every morning and goes into his "prayer room." (When the movie WAR ROOM came out, I told him, "Dad there'...

Me with our dog, Maddie. We lost her last year. Pick a person. Any person. Have their name in mind? Now, consider what they recently lost. It could be a job, a family member, a pet or a home. They may have experienced a miscarriage.  Perhaps they are staring the empty nest in the face.  Their beloved co-worker may have retired or transferred. The office will never be the same. It could be something as simple as their daily routine being lost. There is the loss of the familiar and comforting rhythm of the day. Perhaps the worst losses are sudden ones. Everybody is facing a loss of some kind. And it's hard. Life is filled with loss after loss. I know there are gains. And yet there are still losses. You say..."Well, don't focus on the losses...be positive." We need to be positive and at the same time losses still have to be processed. If we don't handle them right we can actually get sick in more ways than one. Be kind. Everybody out there is losi...

"It's going to be okay..." This phrase has been said to all of us. But what is "okay"? I've come to believe it means, "You're not going to die." Other challenging things may take place. Your body or your (emotional) heart may be crushed into a million pieces...BUT...at least you're not going to die. Except when you die. And then people change directions. "It's okay! He/she still wins because they are with Jesus." And, "They are actually MORE than okay because now they are walking on the streets of gold," etc. I understand why people say this. For the Christian, it's true. And at the same time, it's hard when people tell you that it's going to be okay and it doesn't feel okay, at least for a while. Maybe a long while. That is the reality for some people at this very moment. Their pain cannot be explained away by a Hallmark card ("Everything happens for a reason...") or so...

Sometimes we face a situation that doesn't move forward not matter how hard we work. This is frustrating for a leader. (Everything can be solved by working hard, right? lol ) There are some things we can't work out - we just need to walk them out and wait them out. This week, I came upon this quote about waiting: "Teach us, O Lord, the disciplines of patience, for to wait is often harder than to work."  ~ Peter Marshall   It's so true! It's much harder for me to wait than work.  I don't mind work - in fact I love it. I could work all the day long and if all my problems could have been solved by working they would have been solved long ago. So...regarding the problems that appear stuck in the mud of life,  I have to ask, "What is to be gained in all this?" God must be accomplishing something in me during the wait. It is the Word of God, so I believe it and...for my own sanity I believe it. Whatever it is that I'm supposed to lear...