Deanna Doss Shrodes

All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible. ~T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926

Today is my day off and it's not so much fun as relaxing, which I really need and appreciate. At this point it's not over...but I thought I'd blog before midnight since I have been so late in posting this week, and right now I have a totally quiet house. This morning I got Jordan up for school and then went back to sleep and when I got up my husband made me pancakes. Now THAT is the life. Being honest, I have quite a bit of work left to do this weekend but the Lord has been speaking to me about that whole Sabbath thing so I am determined not to work today. After eating pancakes I took a bath and then got my nails done. It felt so good. Both my hands and feet were so overdue. Larry met me and took me to lunch afterwards at a brand new place called The Hungry Greek . This was amazing, first of all for two reasons: 1) I was hungry. 2) I'm Greek. In addition to that the food was INCREDIBLE. It was one of those places I had a really hard time selecting what to eat because th...

Maddie in her raincoat that Jordan got her. She hates the hat and tries to push it back all the time. In about a week she'll outgrow this outfit. I know. I didn't post again until late... 12:17 am to be exact this time so I guess I technically missed blogging yesterday which is highly unusual. It's just how the schedule went. This week I have missed twice...just so much going on. It was a really busy day (Thursday) at work. We are getting ready to bring about 6 new leaders onto our core team at the church, and we are preparing for what I believe will be our most important leadership meeting ever. This has necessitated some planning meetings...lots of them. It's all good...in fact it's GREAT! But it's keeping us running that's for sure. We had a full day at work and meetings with leaders and then we came home and I had to finish an article I am on deadline to write for this weekend and then start on another one that I have a deadline for earlynext week. I ...

This is a new word I've created, at least to my knowledge, I am the first to come up with it. If you were at our service at Northside this past Sunday morning, you know this was part of my message that I preached. Then, I shared about it in my weekly "cup of coffee" ezine devotional this morning that goes out to a mass of people, and immediately had my e-mail box absolutely flooded with people going crazy about it. One pastor is sharing it at his business meeting tonight. Another pastor thought it was brilliant and just sent the devotional to every single person in their address books, and the list goes on. Every time I check my e-mail box I'm getting more mail from people about it...and the ezine has only been out a few hours...so...... After seeing the flood of e-mail come my way I realized it hit a chord with A LOT of people. I was delighted but kinda scared at the reaction, because... I don't have it copyrighted! The first moment a few weeks ago that God dropp...

Last night was our women's meeting at my house and quite a few people left before this pic above was taken, but we took it before everybody was gone so we'd have some kind of group pic from the night. What a FANTASTIC night we had. I am still on a little cloud after it...SERIOUSLY. I will share some things in posts to come about what God is doing. Left to right...Heather, Savanna (my daughter), Trudy, Debra...awesome chicks! Left to right ~ Patti, Anita, Juleen, Gayle...some of my favorite peeps in the world! I am blessed to have them in my life. By the way, Patti brought the most interesting dish of the night. It was a dessert called, "Sex in a Pan." Of course as people were looking over the food dishes and asked what it was and recieved the answer, it made for a tons of jokes. I won't go into sharing them all here but will just say, it was a good dessert. :-) I will ask her for the recipe and try to post it this week. Left to right ~ Rosa, Candy, An...

I saw a meme last night on a blog and it simply asked a question ~ what are the two most important things people would need to know in order to do your job? I didn't have to think more than a second about the answer: 1) God loves you with the deepest most everlasting love beyond your imagination. 2) God is in control and will never leave or forsake you no matter what.

I know, I know...everybody who reads my blog in the morning, especially my sister Kim, is disappointed that I didn't post til 10:41 tonight. Sorry guys. Things have been a lih-tle crazy. Between our busy ministry schedule and getting our refrigerator, microwave and dryer fixed (yes, when it rains it pours) I have had a few other extra things on my plate that I don't normally have either so............ I find myself posting late tonight and a day behind on my "through the Bible in one year" bible reading so I have eight chapters to read tonight. Okay, some quick bullet highlights from this weekend: We did a major amount of cleaning Saturday. It's never done though... After cleaning we went out with Pastor T and Misty to a nice dinner. Always a great time to be with them. Thanks to all of you who went over and gave a shout out and your prayers at Pastor T's blog. It means so much. He has people all over the world praying for Him. We are confident, he will not...

"Eat honey, dear child—it's good for you— and delicacies that melt in your mouth.Likewise knowledge, and wisdom for your soul—Get that and your future's secured, your hope is on solid rock." Proverbs 24:13-14 The other day I blogged abou t the wonderful healing powers of honey. Seriously, I am experiencing it, although I'm not 100% better yet, it is truly helping me. So far I have gone through about a jar and a half in a week. I am following instructions I got on a site about it, to take a teaspoon whenever I am in pain and also right before going to sleep. Church member and friend Be ck y Faux had talked to me months ago about the healing elements of honey and cinnamon and then she just found this scripture yesterday that actually talks about it being so good for us. So my friends, it's not just a health food store that talks about this -- it's in the B-I-B-L-E! Try it sometime and see if it helps you as it has me. I'm a believer now and I'll prob...

Hello my friends ~ I've so appreciated all of the love, care and prayers you regular readers have given me through years of writing and commenting here on the blog. Now I'd like you to ask you to throw some of those prayers in another direction as well as someone very dear to me is in need of them. Our children's pastor, Trinity Mackley, was diagnosed with cancer (Hodgkins) on Thursday. We are totally confident that God will heal him ! But we need your prayers to press this prayer request right on throug h to the heart of God. He will now be undergoing treatment notwithstanding a total miracle, and we do believe all things are possible!!! He is a man of courage and strength, and faith. He is equipped for this battle . If you look up "loyal staff person" in the dictionary you'll see his picture there along with some other guy named Sam Diaz. :-) I am also praying much for his precious wife, Misty. I am believing that God would give her the peace that passes...

If you care about the issue of life (what could possibly be more important?) and you have been praying, you have even more reason to pray RIGHT NOW. Click the graphic above to go to the news story link...HAPPENING NOW!!! UPDATE: It is done. The order has been signed. God help us...God help the children.

This is the manuscript from my teaching notes last night at Fusion. The intro to why I did this series can be found here on the blog, and the teaching notes from part one last week can be found here with last Thursday's post. Alrighty, here we go... Last week we began to talk about an issue that I believe is plaguing individuals and the body of Christ. Again before I pick up with tonight’s teaching where we left off last week, let me remind you that to be content does not mean we are lazy, or not expectant about what God will do, or that we are not desiring more of Him in our lives, or to ever achieve anything else in life. No, no, no. We’re going to unpack what contentment really means and why a lack of it is hurting us all. Isaiah 55:1-2 "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Liste...

Maddie takes a snooze on Savanna while they watch American Idol last night.

So tonight I wanted to eat some fruit (always have problem getting enough fruit in my diet ~ I'd rather have veggies) and also incorporate some of my new best friend ~ cinnamon ~ into my menu for today. So, I decided to make apple crisp, especially since it's very cold by Florida standards. In fact, I heard a report today which I can hardly believe but they actually said SNOW (a light dusting) is possible here tonight. I'm still thinkin' that's quite improbable, but...we'll see. Anyway, it's cold and we are lighting our fireplace and eating apple crisp in the Shrodes house. I decided I would share the recipe. It's 5 weight watcher points by the way. I used my "5" bonus points for the day on it but will probably try to do a walk off the pounds video before bedtime if I have time. INGREDIENTS: 6 small apples, peeled and sliced. 1/3 c. granulated sugar 2 tbsp. flour 2 tsp. cinnamon TOPPING: 1 c. quick rolled oats 1/4 c. brown sugar 1 tsp. cinnamon...

I am posting this information today for of my ladies who are Northsiders, as well as any other women within driving distance of us who might want to come. I'm the women's ministries rep for Tampa. I recently blogged about our meeting in Sarasota, which was amazing, and one of the aspects of the weekend was receiving the details of the first ever upcoming regional meeting. Buckle your seatbelt! It's going to be AMAZING! So ladies, if you live anywhere in the area, please mark your calendars as the Pen-Florida District Women's Ministries is hosting their first regional event called, "Becoming", on February 6 & 7 , with guest speaker Martha Tennison . If you have never heard Martha, WOW, WOW, WOW...you are missing out, so do WHATEVER you need to do to be there. You will be so blessed, I guarantee it. This is a free event, by the way. How much better can you get than that? F-R-E-E! The Friday night service is at 7 pm, with Martha, and then on Saturday mor...

My friend Pastor Leanne Weber did an excellent blog post yesterday on the healing power of honey and cinnamon. I wholeheartedly believe in this. Yes, I believe in the power of divine healing but I believe God has also given us other means by which to physically heal us at times. I encourage you to click the link to her post and see just how amazing these two ingredients are and what God made them to do. As most of you know I've been sick for two months ever since I got back from Africa. Last week I had every test you can imagine. It appears my stomach problems have returned. I have an appointment with a specialist on the 29th. However, I have this thing I love to do ~ sleep. And with the pain I've been in it's been impossible to sleep or get comfortable during the day either. I have been trying everything OTC you can imagine. The other day I was surfing for "natural cures" and lo and behold I heard about honey. I tried it and in just two times of taking a teasp...

Sporting her new outfit Jordan got her from Petsmart...

Maybe this is my problem? Or maybe my thyroid is out of whack? Um, no...folks, I can't blame it on anything else. It's my same journey every single day that I have battling the flesh. But I'm doing it! I'm fighting the fight and winning! Kudos to all of you who are on the road alongside me doing it. It's a battle each day but we are going to win. I did good this weekend and just want all of you to know that 15 pounds IS coming off of me! (I gained back 15 of the 40 pounds I lost a few years ago, if you aren't up to speed on that or have been totally blind to the weight I've gained in my blog photos.) I know, I know, some of you just looooove me so much you only look at me through rose colored blogging glasses. LOL! On with the weekend update... I can't remember the last time I didn't blog, in fact I don't think I've missed a day since I started publicly blogging years ago. I do say publicly because realize, I was blogging before blogging ex...

The devil just hates you. I'm serious. I'm telling all of you reading this blog right now...please WAKE UP and be aware of his devices! Don't be deceived. Come out of your naivety if you do not believe he has an assignment against you. This weekend has shaken me up a bit. I am realizing just how much the enemy hates me and did not want me to receive what God had for me this weekend. Up til' the last minute, I was not going to reps meeting in Sarasota at the Hyatt. (Pictured at right) I have been feeling miserable as all of you know who read my blog. (I did get an appointment with a specialist by the way, the first available is January 29 so please keep that in prayer.) The last thing I wanted to do feeling this way was drive to Sarasota or anywhere. All I've wanted to do is lay in bed and work from there. Truthfully I didn't even feel like doing my work but being that I'm faithful to the 'nth degree, it's all done from my laptop while I sit with ice ...

My personal word for the year is FEARLESS. I want to let go of fear in so many areas in 2009. As much as I've studied about fear, preached about it, and talked about it, I realize I still have way too much of it. I wasn't sure what my word would be. At first I was going for the opposite of fear...and I thought of "faith" and "courage" and some biblical websites even listed the opposite of fear as love. (Since perfect love casts out all fear, the scripture tells us.) But after talking it over with Tara , I settled on the word, "fearless." My friend/hairdresser Ada also helped me arrive at this thought the other day when I was talking to her. I said, "Ada, this year my goal is to get rid of fear in all areas of my life" and she suddenly turned to me and exclaimed with intensity, "NO FEAR THIS YEAR!" I said, "yes, yes, that's it! That's my theme!" So there you have it ladies and gents, my goal this year is no...

My friend Pastor Tara Sloan issued a challenge this past week on her blog based upon an idea she found about selecting "one word" as your personal theme for the year. The original creator of the One Word Challenge, Ali Edwards , says the following: "A single word can be a powerful thing. It can be the ripple in the pond that changes everything. It can sharp and biting or rich and soft and slow. It can be something tangible or intangible. It could be a thought or a feeling or an emotion. It can be singular or plural. The key is to find something that has personal meaning for you. This is not your mother's word or your spouse's word or your child's word - this is YOUR word. One little word can have big meaning in your life if you allow yourself to be open to the possibilities. And here's one thing that is totally interesting: sometimes a word will pop into your brain and it will not make any sense to you right now. Give it some time. Let it percolate a bit...

Thank you, dear friends, for all of your prayers while I've been trying to move forward the past few days. The doctor thought I might have gotten a bug such as a parasite or malaria on my Africa trip and I have been getting extensively tested for that these past few days. I've had pain for a while and it progressed to become so great on Monday that I moved a doctor's appointment up a few days to get in quicker. I have one more test to undergo in the morning to completely rule out any "bugs" but so far it looks like my anti-bug drugs did work while I was in Kenya. :-) Halleluiah for that. The odd thing about this is that on my first trip to Africa I didn't get bit by one bug. This past year I got bit by a ton of mosquitos one night while I was preaching, of all things. They were nipping at my legs incessently. I really wish I could wear pants while preaching there to avoid all that but honestly it's not allowed. Women have to wear skirts or dresses that com...

"Sometimes the most urgent thing you can do is take a complete rest." Ashleigh Brilliant