“There is no more lovely, friendly or charming relationship, communion or company, that a good marriage.”
Martin Luther
My parents celebrate 36 years of marriage today. I’m beyond grateful that God placed me in a home where I was able to witness the type of marriage that Martin Luther describes: a good marriage. It is my hope and prayer that I can carry on what I’ve seen and learned from them, and have a good marriage of my own. Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!
Do you like to read? If yes, this post is for you! If no, please don’t tell me as that makes me extremely sad (Readers are Leaders, people!) I’ve recently come across some great articles that I want to pass along. I try not to share every article I read on Facebook as I don’t want to inundate the non-readers who see my feed with article after article. You can thank me later. If you’re a reader, I hope you are encouraged, challenged, and enjoy as much as I did.
Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Idle
I found myself nodding along in agreement with a few amens interspersed. Yes, this is a good piece by Owen Strachan
Courtney Reissig hits the nail on the head with this piece. A great read since summer is upon us.
“Therefore, be careful. Consume the news in moderation. Seek the Lord daily for your strength. Find time, make time, in your busy schedule to rest and reflect on the victories, the good news, and the difference you are making. Even Jesus had to leave the suffering multitudes to rest and reconnect.” Yes.
How to Live Through the Really Hard Storms
It’s no secret that I like Ann Voskamp’s writing. This is beautiful.
There you have it. Read away, friends! Happy Tuesday!
Greetings, everyone! My apologies for not getting my post up this past Friday. It turned out to be a busier day than I had anticipated, and I spent my weekend catching up on some much-needed chores around my apartment. However, I do have some great links and didn’t want to miss posting!
Ok, let’s get this show on the road!
1. This post by Ann Voskamp
Favorite quote?
“You can give up the need to compete in the world — when you accept being complete in Christ“
2. This song by Hillsong United. How in the world did I miss this?
3. I want this in my home
4. LOVE this by Dannah Gresh (I’m also a really big fan of Mrs. Gresh 
)
5. Need a good laugh?
Hope you all have a great week. See you tomorrow!
To my nieces (and any other girl who needs to hear)
Dear Girls,
Sweet, wonderful, lovely girls. I have a few things that I need to tell you. Since you’re still young and blessedly innocent playing dress up and dancing around the living room I figured the best way was to write it out. That way you can come back to read it when you’re ready. There is something that I want you to know. Something that I want you to grasp sooner than later.
I read an article that cut me to the core last night. Is this what we’ve come to? Is this what my beloved nieces (and hopefully future daughters) are up against? Is this the message that will prevail? Because while it seems to be so prevalent in our society today I shudder to think what it will be 10-15 years from now. What will be the latest fad? What will be the latest way to lose weight? What will be the latest miracle cure to the acne marking the skin? What other clothing companies will follow this retailer and accept only the “cool” and “popular” kids?
Girls, with everything in my being, I want you to grasp and live this:
“Your worth is not defined by how you look, what size you are or how popular you are.”
Your worth can only be found in Jesus Christ and your surrender to Him. Give your life to Christ, let him mold and shape you, and obey what he calls you to do. The world will shake their heads and be confused by you-they might even throw insults or hurtful words at you-don’t be afraid. Dare to follow Christ and obey his commands. Lose your life in service to Him; this takes intentional discipline and reliance upon God’s mercy and grace. You will fail, but God’s mercy is never ending and abounding.
Find your fulfillment and worth in Him. Only Him. Guard against the trap of living for other people’s approval. You will be miserable (trust me, I know), and you will never find what you’re seeking. Live for Christ, seeking His approval above all else. You will find it in Him.
Finally, girls, guard your heart. Don’t let the sinful world we live in make you hard. Keep focusing on Jesus, keep following Him, allow him to keep your heart soft. Don’t let the cynics and critics in your head. Be confident and secure in who God has made you to be.
Girls, always, always, always know that your aunt Molly loves you. I’m praying for you, and I’m always here for you.
Love,
Auntie Mols
I opened my e-mail this morning and found a message from my brother, Dustin. Normally Dustin will send links, videos, articles, etc… that he finds interesting and we’ll talk about them. However, after this particular one I’m having trouble putting words together. This is a sermon jam from John Piper’s “The Supremacy of Christ” message. Let’s just say it was a nice kick in the tail for me. After watching this I’m reminded of the C.S. Lewis quote:
Oh that we would not be too easily pleased. May we start to see and savor the supremacy of Christ and live our lives in that knowledge. I encourage you to take 20 minutes and watch this video. I promise it’s worth your time.
Good Monday morning to all! If you’re in Boone, I hope you’re dry, warm, and safe. If you’re not in Boone, well, I hope you’re safe. It has been raining since yesterday non-stop here in my little mountain town with no signs of letting up soon. Makes for interesting travel and dog walking. But enough about the rain…I want to share about my weekend with you!
It was pretty much a normal, uneventful weekend for me; but a big one for some people in my family. Why? The New River Half Marathon, of course! Every year the New River Marathon is held the first weekend in May (because that’s when things start to warm up around here. Heh, heh, heh. More on that later.) and my sister-in-law love, Fran decided to train for the half marathon.
In addition to Fran running, Evie, Mary Fran, LeeAnne, Ward, and Ruthie all decided to run the kids fun run on Friday night. As we Petreys are known to do, we went out the the marathon site to cheer on the kids as they ran one mile around the field.
All of the kids did such a great job, and I’m so proud of them!
Mary Fran and LeeAnne post race. Yes, LeeAnne wore her boots to run in.
Ruthie and Evie post race. Ruthie came in 8th and Evie 10th! Way to go, girls!
Ward didn’t want his pic taken, so just imagine his cute smiling face here.
Me with my running girls
While it was overcast and cloudy on Friday night, the weather wasn’t too bad. I wore a fleece vest and was perfectly comfortable. Then I woke up on Saturday morning. I’ll let Ward show you how we felt:
COLD. We were COLD.
It was somewhere around 40ish degrees with a brisk wind and misty fog. It wasn’t so bad once you got over the feeling of numbness in all of the exposed parts of skin. No big deal.
We were able to watch Fran run to the finish line and cheer her on which was fun. I then started to feel sorry for her because when you run 13.1 miles you’re going to sweat (it’s inevitable, folks) and when you sweat and its 40ish degrees outside, you get cold. Well, at least I get cold. Fran didn’t seem to be too cold, but perhaps she just has a great poker face?
We are all so proud of her for accomplishing this goal! She said that it was 11 years in the making (to clarify, unlike me it did not take her 11 years to train it was simply that the timing did not work out until now for her to run a 1/2 marathon. I think some fellow named Drew got in the way ) She did really great, and it was fun to cheer her on the sidelines as she ran in accomplishing her goal! In the words of my other sister-in-law love, Daphne: Way to go, Frances!
Yesterday, I woke up to a cold, cold rain in which I had to schlep about so my dog would go to the bathroom. Can someone please explain why it takes dogs f-o-r-e-v-e-r to use the bathroom while it’s pouring the rain? Anyone? I did my best to stay dry, but my poor little pink raincoat is dying a slow and painful death. It’s time for a new one. Lands End, here I come!
In closing, I would like to share with you my feelings of walking a dog in the pouring, freezing (did I mention it is cold?) rain:
It’s a joy, folks. A joy.
Have a great Monday, and stay dry!
I’m particularly excited to announce that we’re going to switch some things up on the blog. As much as I’ve enjoyed showing you my top 5 Pinterest picks, I want to add more variety to share different things I’ve come across during the week . So, I’m changing “Oh, How Pinteresting” to “Friday Favorites”. I’ll still share 5 things with you, but not all will come from Pinterest. I might share an encouraging (or challenging) article I’ve read, new song I’ve come across, picture that I love, etc… I think it will be fun!
So, here goes. The first Friday Favorites!
1. This song. Oh my, so good. But of course what Kari Jobe song isn’t great?
2. This quote. Words of wisdom to hold on to:
3. This photo. These are some of the kids that are in the drama group at my church, we got together to celebrate all they had accomplished and to work on a little project. We had so much fun! I think they were fighting over the ice cream at this point. I love these people.
4. This article. What a great reminder.
5. This e-card. There was a day this week that this was very appropriate 
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!
