Deanna Doss Shrodes

Tonight was the Tampa city-wide women & teen girls tea at Celebration! It was amazing! I'm on a cloud and don't want to come down. So just leave me here. :) Two of our Celebration members who are professional photographers took a ton of photos but they are not ready to publish them online  yet so all I have are the few I took with my iPhone in between everything else I did which included speaking. :) Here are some highlights of the night...   Most of all, hearts were touched...lives were changed. That's what it's about even more than tea. ** Update below with some photos from Dinah Velasquez of Dinah-mite Photos **

God is in the business of preserving families. It is His heart. It's my heart too. And, I'll unabashedly say here that I believe it should be everyone's heart. Everyone likes good news and I've got some for you today. If you are in doubt that God still speaks today and that He uses people to accomplish His work, I pray this will speak to you. Last night I was sitting in service at Celebration Church where we are pastors, and my husband was preaching. His message was about what we want to be remembered for in life, and he made the statement that we can't change our past but we can change the future.  In that moment, God spoke to me. He began to give me my next post for Lost Daughters, where I'm also a blogger. To be honest it's more than just another place where I blog. It's a sisterhood. A lifeline. A place that has come to mean a great deal to me, because of the amazing women who are there. During the service I basically had this entire post...

Let's dream together... What if we all managed to show our husband or wife in just one way, every day, how much we love them? It wouldn't always have to be something big or dramatic. Although on occasion, big and dramatic is good. On most days, it could be as simple as bringing them a cup of coffee in bed, or warming up the car before they get in it (or cooling it down if you live in Florida). Perhaps it would mean taking initiative to do a chore for them that they absolutely hate to do. Or maybe making time to join them in the shower before work? Just imagine...what if? What if we all did at least one thing each day? The awesome thing is, we don't have to stop at dreaming...this can be our reality.  Recently I blogged about how to get through to your spouse when nothing else is working. I shared about appealing to their five senses in communicating.  A reader mentioned the book The Five Love Languages in the comments of the post. I love the book and highly rec...

This post is for three groups of people: 1) Christian teens who are dating. 2) Parents of Christian teens who are dating. 3) Single Christian adults who are dating. Disclaimer: If you are not a Christian, this post is not for you. If you have no desire to meet and marry a Christian mate, this post is not for you. Don't get your panties all in a bunch about it. This post is exclusively for people who hold strong Christian values and desire a life partner who shares the same. If you fit categories 1, 2 and 3 above, I'm imploring you to watch out for fakers. In this post I'm going to show you five ways to discern them and avoid them. Let's talk about something I know for sure, aside from dating.  I've learned that when someone wants something they can put on a good act in order to get what they want.  I've observed that some individuals do a really good job of it even for several years.  People can't fake it forever, but they can persevere for ...

When I was a young mother a few people cautioned me about rocking my babies too much. They warned of the dangers of "spoiling" them. I don't believe for a minute that an infant can be spoiled. Infants don't have the capability to formulate a plan to emotionally manipulate anyone. They simply cry and express their needs in the only way they know how. I'm so glad I never listened to those who warned of "spoiling." How precious are the memories of hours spent rocking and soothing the precious children God gave me. This was key to our bonding as mother and child, and to their emotional health and well being. As children grow, some also believe that parental affection should wane. I've heard some parents say, "My kids know I love them, but I'm just not an outwardly expressive or affectionate person." I believe that's dangerous and strongly disagree with that philosophy. Appropriate affection doesn't have to stop and in fact, it...

What a great weekend. I'm sad that it's ending but so excited to be starting another fabulous week!! Our Thanksgiving was just phenomenal. We have so much to be grateful for. I was just overwhelmed by the love of friends and family. We actually shared 3 Thanksgiving meals together. I seriously have probably gained at least 10 pounds. Not happy about that, but so grateful for all the love and laughter that was shared around dinner and dessert tables this past week. Our house and the church are both fully decorated for Christmas. It gives me a warm and happy feeling inside just to be in both atmospheres. LOVE it! The topper of the weekend was a visit from very old friends. Well, they're not old. But we've been friends a loooooooooong time. They've known me even longer than my husband has. Nancy Tallagsen Coradi grew up just a few streets over from me, when we were kids. We went to school together and sang in the choir. We've got lots of memories together. ...

Today I looked through some old Christmas photos and came upon this one from 2006. We had been in our new home for just a year or two and the kids were still so young. Old pictures bring tears to my eyes. It seems we blink, and they grow up. I got to thinking as well about things I'm still dealing with that I said I'd change. All in all it's a wonderful life, but quite honestly there are things I've never changed that I should have. I'm determined this is my year, somehow, some way, it's going to be different come this time next year.  It's on my mind a lot as 2013 nears. If I can pull this off it will be one of the greatest gifts I've ever given myself. What do you want to give yourself in 2013?  

I love to sleep but love my daughter more. She enjoys waking at the crack of dawn on black Friday to go out. I must confess while I normally wouldn't be caught dead outside the house without my hair styled and makeup applied, I don't care on black Friday. I'm just not gonna awaken at 4 am to do all that. So, she wakes me up at whatever ungodly hour she wants to leave. I take about 10 minutes to wash my face, brush my teeth and change from my pj's into clothes and we head out. We shop at one department store (usually Bealls) and then we go to breakfast. Her choice is Waffle House. When we've been sufficiently smothered and covered, we hit the road to go to more stores for a few hours. When we're too tired to shop anymore we come home to do the Christmas decorating at the house. This always gets completed on black Friday.  Usually we have seven Christmas trees but the past two years we've been down to five, since two of them bit the dust. The Christmas spi...

Turkey and all the trimmings were on hand at our house today, along with a plethora of pies and other moan-worthy delights. Twenty-eight people feasted on it all, not once but all throughout the day. And yet, it was not about the food. The food was just the backdrop. It was really all about family, friendship, conversation, and love. We laughed, and laughed and laughed some more. We thanked God for our blessings, and talked around the table about what's most important. Faith and family...what could be greater? All of these things and more...I am so grateful for. Thank you, Lord...for all Your blessings on me.