Celia A. Miller

My morning hadn’t gone according to plan.  I woke up at 6:30 am, opened my bedroom door, and noticed that the hallway’s air was a bit chilly. I didn’t think too much about it as I sauntered down the stairs, debating in my mind whether or not I wanted Chai Tea or Earl Grey. As my feet hit the bottom stair, that’s when I could no longer ignore the arctic chill that had seemed to encompass my living room. My dire suspicions about the furnace were confirmed as the temperature on our thermostat read 51 degrees.  It is always set to precisely 68 degrees.  The best part of this unwanted…

Have you ever put God in a box?  Have you ever, without notice, slowly and accidentally, started to believe that God can only meet you during certain times of the day or specific occasions in your life? Do you think that God is only accessible during your devotional time or when you’re sitting at Church on Sunday? Do you ever believe that to approach His presence, you have to ‘have it all together’? Perhaps you don’t believe these things, and if you feel that way, then I would ask you this question: Does the way you live your life reflect it? A few weeks ago, I announced that my word…

Hi, friend! Did you know that for each month of the year, I choose a book to be featured as a “Book of the Month”? There’s even a page over on my website that houses all 11 books of the year with their titles, pictures, my own personal review and a link to the book on Amazon.  Yep, you read that last sentence correctly – 11, not 12 –  books in a year! I’ve decided that January isn’t going to get its own book; it’s going to get 5!  I’m going to share with you all my top 5 favorite books from 2020 – 3 nonfiction and 2 fiction –…

You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you,in a dry and parched land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. -Psalm 63:1-4  I will forever remember 2020.  Not just because of the chaos an unknown pandemic created, but also because, for me, it was a year of seeking and thirsting for God. Like King David, wandering…

“Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill His promises to her!” These are the famous words of Elizabeth, mother of John, to Mary, mother of Jesus, in Luke 1:45. Both women were with child at the time, and as soon as Mary greeted Elizabeth, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb “leaped for joy” (Luke 1:44). The Holy Spirit walked into the room tucked deep inside Mary’s womb, and, immediately, joy and light sparked and danced between these two women.  After Elizabeth’s proclamation, Mary responds by speaking the Lord’s promises aloud: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for he has looked…

We decided to send out Christmas cards this year. In the four years that Max and I have been married, we’ve never mailed out Christmas cards to loved ones. Looking back, I think it was because Christmases past haven’t felt as lonely or foreign as Christmas this year. There wasn’t the kind of emptiness then that now lies in the wake of 2020. In the past, My husband would choose a family picture, slap it on a Walmart photo Christmas card, and then send it only to his clients from work. I was never involved in the process, nor did I honestly care to be. This year though, I decided…

I woke up this morning with a yearning, a thought, and a prayer.  The yearning was for joy; a piece of light littered with delight amidst all the heaviness.  The thought was this:  how do I find the kind of joy that keeps my heart open long enough to let the light in?  And the simple, yet powerful, prayer I whispered answered that thought while simultaneously fulfilling the yearning in my heart. Oh, Father, help me delight myself in You.  I’ve been taking the time recently to remind myself of who God is. I’ve written about how God doesn’t change even though our circumstances do. I’ve told you that He…

Have you noticed that the world has been loud lately?  As the noise grows, I realize I have a choice whether or not to let in the chaos. My heart has been like a revolving door lately, swinging shut and opening wide as I go from anxious to content and then back again. The more I fill myself with social media and the news, the wearier I become and the emptier I feel. I think it’s time to open my heart wide to the true anchor of my soul. Abba – my Heavenly Father.  It’s time to shut my heart off to what drives me to madness and instead focus…