Tuesday With Teri

Devotions from lessons I'm learning from God

Mom December 8, 2025

Filed under: devotionals — tlmiller82 @ 4:32 pm
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Today is my mom’s birthday; she would’ve been 88.  I miss her.  I miss sending her boxes of Christmas candy for her birthday, especially the ribbon candy she loved.  I miss the birthday phone call, where she would tell me how much she liked the candy, and laugh about sharing it with others in the house.  

I miss sending her funny/meaningful/ugly ornaments.  Last month my sister and I had time to go through mom’s ornaments…each of us getting back those we had given her over the years. I am certain mom is snickering a bit in heaven, knowing those monstrosities I once sent her now adorn my tree.   It is just one more example of my mom’s humor and admirable long-game influence. 

This year, as we brought out our Christmas décor, we unearthed a few forgotten boxes.  In one, was a pair of raggedy tennis shoes. More evidence of my mom’s long-game influence.  You see, when I was in high school, I had a favorite pair of tennis shoes.  I wore them daily for years and wore them out.  We are talking toes hanging out the side, threadbare, and in general an unsightly mess level of worn out.  She hated those shoes.  I refused to give them up.  So, before getting married, I wrapped them and presented them to her with fanfare in a nod of thanks for her long-suffering of the fashion indignity.  It was funny.  She appreciated the gesture, and I thought that was the end of the story…but not my mom.  That crazy lady tucked the shoes away for another season.  Cue the day my own son was in middle school, and I was picking him from a church event…yep, there was my boy proudly wearing my raggedy tennis shoes, plopping step by step for all the world to see!  Apparently, she had snuck them to him when they last visited her and paid him to wear them.  My mom’s long game was strong then and now…while often in funny ways like the ornaments and the shoes…it is also strong in other ways.

When mom passed, I received her study Bible.  I leafed through it briefly at the time, then set it on a shelf, intending to go through it another day…today was that day.  I laughed and cried a bit as I unzipped the binder holding it together.  The pages flopped open easily, revealing heavily highlighted text and copious hand-scrawled notes.  I could hear her voice as I read her words.  My own study Bible was nearby…As I unzipped the binder, the pages flopped open, revealing heavily highlighted text and copious hand-scrawled notes.  Yep, in perhaps the best long game ever, my mom’s influence emerged from those pages.  I turned to Phil. 4:6&7 in both.  This was a verse she quoted to me often and one I had just covered in this week’s Advent blog post.  My heart filled as I wiped away tears…there we were…mother and daughter.  My mom’s long-game influence radiated from the pages.  I had no idea how similar our Bibles had become.  Our highlight colors of choice were different(neon green and yellow for me, pink for her), but the verses we marked were almost identical throughout the pages.  My mom’s penmanship was normally much neater than mine, but in her notes, like me, she was less careful…perhaps like me, her notes were never intended for anyone but herself, written in haste to capture a thought before it was lost. I especially love the notes she made below verse 7, “Life is good!” Smiley face…and further down on the page “Be positive toward people…(pray)about everything, about thinking, a
simple approach to life”.  This is the mom I miss.  

This month we wrap up our year of  “firsts” without her…but each of these days are made sweeter in knowing she played a long game of influence and left us all with powerful memories of laughter and faithfulness.  

 

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloons and advent of Hope November 25, 2025

Filed under: advent,devotionals — tlmiller82 @ 3:43 pm
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It was September and far from Thanksgiving, but for some odd reason, visions of the giant balloons in the Macy’s Parade kept floating through my head each night (pun intended).  I had seen a video about the line handlers for balloons.  While an interesting history of the tradition, I had never really considered the folks holding those lines.  No doubt this is what started the dreams.  My Macy’s parade balloon dreams included various balloons looming over a city, with only a few people straining at the lines to control them.  By the third night of restless balloon-filled dreams, I began to put things in place. I had been feeling untethered lately.    Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with self-doubt, discouragement, and guilt.  Oh, I am perfectly capable of breezing through days or weeks, without a care, one step in front of the other, doing life…but there are also days, weeks, seasons, when my mind veers into rabbit holes, drags me back to the weight of past choices, or shrouds my thoughts with hopelessness and anxiety concerning little and large aspects of my world.  It is too easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of life.

Here is the thing, when conditions are perfect, it does not take many line handlers to maneuver the giant balloons…but because things can quickly become imperfect, numerous handlers are needed to keep parade attendants safe and the balloons secure and on track.  That is me, that is my life…when things are going great, I do not feel the need to have help staying attached or on course.  It is only when those life storms kick up that I begin to concern myself with to Whom or how I am anchored or tethered.   

Who holds my lines?  Where do I turn when anxious?  When I feel I am losing myself, who do I trust to reel me back in…I will tell you that on my fourth night of restless sleep, when thoughts of parade balloons loomed overhead…I mentally focused on the handlers.  I found myself thanking God for the people He has placed in my life who are my line handlers.  Family, friends, and loved ones, who go through life with me and remind me of His blessings.  I also realized I had placed lines in hands of people or things not worthy of them…I had allowed people or things to have control of parts of my life that were not healthy; I am learning to let them go.  I also realized I had (once again) allowed the Word of God to fall from my daily life…I can literally feel myself handing God my most impactful “line” each time I read His words.   I feel tethered again.

It is funny, but not at all surprising, to realize that as I sit to write my first advent post this year, it is only days before Thanksgiving and the Macy’s Day Parade!  Those ballons are still in my thoughts and on my heart.  These last few months I have be mindful of my lines…determined to stay tethered to the God of my Hope. 

This first week of advent we stop and consider the HOPE we have in Jesus Christ.   Though we may not deserve it, while we all are still sinners, He sent His son, Jesus Christ, who overcome death on our behalf that we may know forgiveness and grace and not eternal darkness.  THIS is the lifeline God sent to us…THIS is the reason God will always be my ultimate line handler, the One who keeps me on course, safe from all manner of misguiding currents or storms.   I am looking forward to the Macy’s parade this year, but now I will see it differently…those silly, floppy, wayward, comical balloons will forever be a reminder to check my lines and trust the God Who holds them.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” Romans 15:13

 

“It Is What It Is” December 16, 2014

Filed under: devotionals — tlmiller82 @ 7:23 pm
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This is the third week of Advent.  Each week, four leading up to Christmas, we pause in remembrance of the birth of our Savior.  In some households a candle will be lit in recognition of each of the Advent themes.  This week we light the candle of PEACE.

“It is what it is”. I am not sure exactly when I heard this phrase for the first time. I do not recall what it was in reference to, but it made me feel uncomfortable. Since then, I have heard these words uttered countless times and each time it made my heart ache. I had only heard “It is what it is” in negative contexts I suppose. It was often spoken with a breathy sigh, a resignation of a plight, or a settling/acceptance of a bad thing.

I get it. I know there are times in life when there is just nothing anyone can do, and as one of my friends once said, “Sometimes you just have to put your big kid pants on and deal with it.” Still, it just does not feel right to proclaim a situation as beyond change, even if it is true.

I was not a fan of “it is what it is”, which is why I found it odd, that when considering the topic of “PEACE” for our advent devotion, I could not get this phrase out of my head. I had written it down as a passing thought in my notes last week. It was even scribbled in the margin of a shopping list I made a few days ago. The words kept bouncing around in my head like that ping pong ball in the old Atari games.  At first, I thought of it as a good example of resignation/hopelessness. I thought it would be a good intro into the topic of “HOPE”, but that advent theme has already passed. I had been asking God for something to share about “PEACE”.   I was sort of hoping for a scripture to roll into my life and present itself, not a negative tinged “It is what it is.”  What could THAT have to do with PEACE, God’s PEACE?

I looked the phrase up on line, seeking to find its intended meaning. Of course there were many ways it can be utilized, but for the most part, it has come to mean the following concerning situations:

Inevitable, unchangeable, unstoppable, out of one’s control, and my favorite, “C’ est la vie” (such is life)

Suddenly the phrase that was at once zinging around in my head in negative connotation, came to a complete stop and stood glaring out at me as if in neon lettering. “It is what it is.” is not always about settling for less of a thing, or accepting a negative situation… it is a confidence that when something is not in your control, you will still be okay. It is a knowing that while something is unchangeable, you are capable of moving forward.   We may not control our circumstances, but we control how we respond in our hearts.

At Christmas we are especially mindful of the year round truth that is this:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

This is God’s PEACE…in Him we do not strive for perfection, nor do we sit condemned from our sin. In Him we find grace, unearned favor, forgiveness and life. God’s PEACE is being settled in the midst of unsettling times. We face unchangeable things, unstoppable events and we may not have control, but our God is UNCHANGEABLE, UNSTOPPABLE and always in CONTROL.

“It is what it is” once caused me to envision someone throwing their hands up in defeat…now, when I think of this phrase, instead I envision someone dropping their burden, tossing their hands in the air and falling back into His capable arms.

“For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah9:16)