One of the foster toddlers got me up at 5:30 am. Who wants to wake up at 5:30 am on a Sunday morning? Sunday, after all, should be a day of rest.

It’s already been a full weekend. I’ve got a list of chores a mile long. Write lesson plans for the five teens and tweens. Grocery shop for the week. Ensure my husband has enough clothes and gluten-free snacks to pack for his upcoming  business trip.

Can’t I just stay home today?

It’s rainy outside, too. Aren’t gloomy days for staying at home, curling up in your toasty pj’s, and reading a good book? I’d rather not have to get out the umbrella, and try keep myself, two toddlers, a diaper bag and my Bible dry as we hurry across the wet parking lot. I can see it now. My nearly three-year old foster son is going to want to stop and inspect every single puddle on our way to the door.

I think today I’d prefer to skip church.

In America we are blessed with the freedom to worship … or not to worship.

It seems to me that a lot of our basic freedoms are slowly slipping away. And as much as I might think I want to exercise my right to not have to attend church today, I dread more to imagine what my life would be like if I didn’t have the opportunity to worship at all (or was forced to be part of a religion with which I didn’t agree).

I’m so thankful that I’ve still got this freedom to go to the church of my choice. I pray it never is taken away.

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It’s rainy, I’ve got important things to do at home, and I’d rather just relax at home anyway. But I won’t.

I’ll go to church and worship.  

Not out of some civic duty to exercise my right to worship. Not because I particularly feel like it at this very moment.

I am going to church because it’s what God said to do.

And I know that once I’m there, I will bow my heart and raise my hands … and leave thankful that I chose to spend time today worshipping my Savior.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. ~Hebrews 10:24-25