"Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall Come To Thee, Oh Israel"

This morning was rough.  It started out wonderfully.  My baby girl awoke as Peter was getting ready so he placed her next to me in our bed.  We both fell back to sleep snuggled up together.  The trouble began when we woke up just 25 minutes before we should have been leaving for church.  For anyone without a toddler, that is not nearly enough time to get ready.  My daughter is getting her canines in and is almost two.  These two facts alone can double our usual getting ready estimate.  The clearest picture of this is that it took nearly ten minutes to put her pants on.  I'm laughing about it now, but earlier I was not laughing.  One we were both dressed and ready I couldn't find my keys.  Once I found my keys I looked at the clock and found that church was ending in about a half hour.  Roughly the same amount of time it takes to get from our apartment to our church.  I was disappointed.  We were out of town last week & missed church so I really wanted to be there this morning.  When I don't make it to church I miss worshiping in community.  I miss seeing loved ones.  I miss hearing God's word preached.  This morning there was nothing I could do about the first two, but I could still hear God's word preached.  I pulled up iTunes & looked up John MacArthur (a pastor & author my Dad-in-Law respects greatly) and listened.  As I played the first sermon my toddler settled in and played quietly for the entire twenty-some minutes it took to listen.  It was such a blessing.  That being said, it is taking several attempts to listen to part two.  I'm including the first message in case it can bless you as well.

Rejoice Always, 1

Merry Christmas!