I'm not understanding this.... I see where you are saying that Good Works has the lowest ID number (21), but isn't the display order controlled by the order I have them listed in the category manager? If so then in the category manager Today's News should be first., followed by Schools, Real Estate, Parenting, etc. Please see the screen shot in my original post to see the category order that I have them listed in.
The category ID number shouldn't have anything to do with ordering in the module. Or if it does that is a silly way to do it. That would mean that I would have had to create the categories in the order that I want them listed so that their ID numbers are sequential. If I come along later and add more categories but want them to be in a different place in the order I would have to edit the database to change the ID numbers?
The order should be controlled by the order set by the admin in the category manager. That is how every other Joomla module I've ever used does it.
Am I missing something here?
I should also mention that the ordering was fine prior to me updating the module to the most recent version. We had been running on the same old module since Teline 3 came out until recently when we updated everything. Why would the ordering change when the module was updated?