Sacrifice of Praise

Hebrews 13:15 (New International Version)

¹⁵Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.

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I have been singing a praise chorus in my head all day... the one that says, "We bring the sacrifice of praise, into the house of the Lord..."

You may ask why I have been pondering that song today. The words SACRIFICE OF PRAISE never really made sense to me. Why is it a sacrifice to praise our Heavenly Father? It is so easy to praise Him.. he has done so many mighty and wonderful things for me and for the people around me.

But each Sunday morning it is shown me what a Sacrifice of Praise really is. And for the mother of a large family, with many little ones, it is a Sacrifice to praise. It is a Sacrifice to just get to church in the morning. It is a sacrifice to try to get everyone in decent clothing (forget it being ironed), socks that match (or not), and shoes. (Most of the time. Let's not dwell on the time one of my children got to church without shoes. There was a reasonable explanation. Ahem.)

It is a sacrifice just to be there as I am distracted by my many little people. It is a sacrifice to stand holding one of them for the entire service because I don't want them to learn that the church service is a time to play. It is a sacrifice to be there on the days Eric is working and cannot be there to help.

And it is OK. God knows I have not heard an entire sermon in years. It is OK. God understands that my sacrifice is just in getting to His house in the morning. He knows that my sacrifice these days constitutes wiping noses and cleaning sticky fingers.

Someday I will spend hours in prayer. Hours studying the Word. For now I dry tears. I train in righteousness. I try to lead my little ones to Christ.

And that is my Sacrifice of Praise. That is my laying down my life to follow Him.

And He understands.

Randomness for February.

Just some random photos from the last month...

Our cow Domino. She'll hopefully have a baby in September which the children have already named Checkers.



And here's a recent one of Bethie... note the footwear. And the wires coming out of the jammies. She is now up to 3 apnea episodes at night, and 3 times of her heartbeat dropping low. Still no word on what is going on with her.



And here is Samuel learning to read. He's such a genius.



And absolutely adorable to boot.

Guest Blogger: EP

In honor of this daughter of ours turning 17 last week, and the young men who are sure to be knocking on our doors in the not so far future...



Eric decided to send a few shots downrange.



Just thought all you young men may want to know.

:)

i heart faces : Hands On

I love, love, love baby hands. And feet. And necks. And... well, just about anything to do with my sweet little babies.

The challenge this week was to get a picture of hands... there are a lot of entries over there, so I am sure that there are lots better photos, but I sure do love my sweet little Sam and his sweet little hands.

You Capture: Kisses

This week's theme at You Capture is "Kisses". I guess that's because of Valentine's Day and all that. And although this is not the whole romantic sort of photo, it's a very REAL photo from the Petersonclan. It's also from Christmas, not Valentine's day, but it is my favorite kissing photo to date. You can see the whole original post here.

Except the photo of Eric and I kissing on the beach at our wedding. But that's not digital. So here we are...

Speaking of Valentines Day... Eric and I have a really funny tradition for Valentine's day. We give each other "Redneck" Valentine's gifts. These are things that we give the other person (that they would really like) but that we would like ourselves. One year Eric gave me a Leatherman tool. Last year I gave him a mixer so I could make a cheesecake for his birthday. This year he was working on Valentines Day (when he works days we don't see much of him), so I haven't gotten my gift yet, but I am sure you are wondering what I got him? A Black t-shirt (his favorite) that says, "i love my wife". Aren't I clever?! Haha.

And since this is proving to be a very random post... for those of you wondering about the scarring on my sweet Mercy's face, you can read about her here first and then here. Stay tuned... I will be posting a long update about her soon.

Sweet, Sweet Sara

Nathan's Birthday

We are in the middle of Birthday Season Part 1 at the Petersonclan Farm. Between Mercy's birthday on Christmas Day, and Josiah's on March 17 we have 6 birthdays. Here is Nate enjoying turning 5.

He was so excited to have a birthday. The poor kid had to wait to open his gifts until late at night because we were so busy... but open them he did.



Every self-respecting family needs a fireman.



He also got a bike helmet...



So shiny new you can even see the reflection of me taking the photo...






We recycled the bike Matt was given when he turned 6. Nate didn't care... he was thrilled to be able to ride it! The only other bike close to his size was the pink one Mercy won at the Pharmacy day last fall.



Look at that sweet face.



And here he is climbing a tree. I am not sure where my baby went, but he is on the fast track to growing up.