I would like to welcome Mary & Sally from Mary & Sally to Pursuits of God. I saw their beautiful work at One Love back in August and have been itching to interview them for the blog since then. To see more of their work, head over to their site and ecommerce store at Mary&Sally.
PoG: Hi ladies. Thanks for joining us at Pursuits of God. Can you tell us a little about yourselves and Mary&Sally?
M: Thanks so much for inviting us – we were laughing a bit because we’re both still quite uncomfortable with talking about ourselves – we decided it might be easier if we told you about the other instead!
Sal and I have been friends for over 10 years now; we met at church, and she was one of the first few friends I made in my first years there who had a huge part in my walk as a Christian. She was (and still is) never afraid to ask the tough questions or gently challenge my faith – but all in love, and a genuine desire for my joy and good. She’s a straight-talker but a big softie on the inside, and luckily shares a love of coffee and all things aesthetically pleasing with me. I’ve been really blessed to have walked with her over the years and through all our different seasons. It’s crazy to think we were both much younger then, and now she’s a mother of three!
S: Let me tell you a little about Mary. We’ve been friends for over 10 years so we’ve travelled along many different seasons of life together. I think I’d be pretty good to give you a snapshot of who she is. Mary is humble and other-centred; so much so that if there was a fire, she’d make sure everyone evacuated before she leaves. She’s gentle and kind. She’s quick to listen and slow to speak. She upholds her faith with integrity, her love for Jesus is evident, and she’s a woman of her word. She’s a gem, I feel totally blessed to not only be working on Mary & Sally with her, but to be doing life together. Mary is a dog lover (I think small white fluffy ones are her thing). Haha. She’s always been good with hand illustrations and hand lettering. And for sure, she’s a perfectionist.
M: Through Mary & Sally we create and design greeting cards, gift tags and wall prints, with the aim of being an encouragement, or an uplifting reminder in people’s hands, homes, workspaces and hearts!
PoG: What lead you to start Mary & Sally?
M: Mary & Sally is something we started as a little project, both having had wanted to do something creative for ourselves for a long time, but feeling more courageous having someone to do it with! Sal’s always worked in design, and I’ve been more self-taught, so we balance each other out really well. 
To be honest we didn’t have much of a plan when we first started, other than designing some greeting cards and seeing how they went. But I remember the first day we sat down to start planning, Sal prayed for us – thanking God for the opportunity to even think about starting a creative project together, and asking that He would lead us and in deepen our friendship as we did it. It still really humbles me thinking back to it, and even more so reflecting on even the small steps He has allowed us to take in this journey. It really didn’t take long (maybe a week!) until we realised we wanted this to be something that was an encouraging, “salt and light” presence and contribution to everything that was out there in the market.
PoG: What are your favourite Bible verses?
S: John 14:1-3: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
M: One I always seem to come back to is Matthew 6:33, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Actually, I probably go back to that whole chunk in Matthew 6:25-34 quite a bit. It’s a reminder for me that not only is He good and knows our needs, but that the things of this world are not what we fix our eyes on.
PoG: How do you pursue God in your lives?
S: I think God pursues me more than I do Him. I find it hard to get a big chunk of time just reading and praying, so what I tend to do is just try to remember 1-2 passages in Scripture and meditate on that for days until it becomes real to me. I also find our M&S prints around the house a reminder for me to pursue God. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”… this often stops me to think what or who my treasure is. Is it Jesus or something else? On top of that, I don’t think we’re supposed to be Christians alone. So meeting with other Christians definitely helps me in my pursuit of God. There is a mutual accountability and encouragement that spurs me on in my love for Jesus and to grow in my faith in Him. 
M: Definitely not perfectly – there are so many times I feel like I could be spending more time in the Word, or I feel my heart changed because I haven’t been pursuing Him enough. I do try pray throughout the day; I need it from the moment I wake in the morning to when I go to bed thinking about the next day! I think also with prayer, the more you pray, the more you start to notice God working. (I say this not because God isn’t doing anything otherwise, but rather our awareness of His hand increases!) I agree with Sal when she says being around other Christians grows accountability and encouragement too. This is definitely one big thing that encourages me to grow in godliness and pursue God.
To celebrate Pursuits of God Turning 2, Mary & Sally gave away an A4 print of “He is Faithful” to a member of our community- thank you so much! They are also offering 10% discount to any order until the end of December, using the code POG2016 – did I mention they also have Free Shipping in Australia?
