My guest today is Rachel Booth Smith. If you’ve ever read the Bible and wondered if your 21st-century self might be missing a few things, same! And we are! Rachel faces that question today with an eye on the very first pages of Scripture. Her new book is Rest Assured: What the Creation Story was Intended to Reveal about Trusting God, and it is so timely as we take a fresh look at what it means to truly rest. I’m learning that rest is tightly connected to my idea of trust, and Rachel offers some fantastic clarity on how that looks on any given Tuesday. I’m so grateful for her wisdom and for this conversation.

Rachel Booth Smith has a contagious love for God’s Word. Her passion to teach accessible theology has led her to develop curriculum and leadership summits, write Bible studies, and teach. Rachel has a Master of Divinity degree from Pillar Seminary, where she learned to study the Bible in its original languages while being trained in ancient Near East context for both the Old and New Testament. Find her online at rachelboothsmith.com and on socials @rboothsmith.

Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠KimberlyStuart.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more from this episode.

Do you ever careen into the Christmas season? Maybe arrive at the Christmas Eve service sweaty? Saying to yourself, “Quick! Be peaceful and contemplative and remember what this season is all about!” Then this is the conversation for you (and for me). My guest today is Amanda Bible Williams. Yes, that is her real name and of course I sure did ask her about it. You might know Amanda for her beautiful work at She Reads Truth, the collective that’s been going strong for fourteen years. Amanda and her team have steeped themselves in how to not just acknowledge Advent and the arrival of Christmas but how to truly savor it. Advent begins December 1 this year, so we are chatting in plenty of time to avoid the sweaty candlelight service.

Happy news! Amanda and her team have offered listeners of For Real a special discount for their advent resources. Go to SheReadsTruth.com and use the code KIMBERLYS15 for 15% off your order. Offer good through January 5, 2025.

Amanda Bible Williams is co-founder of She Reads Truth, a brand that creates beautiful, accessible Bible reading plans and resources that help women read God’s Word every day. She is also the editor of the She Reads Truth Bible and co-host of the She Reads Truth Podcast. Amanda, her husband David, and their four children live in a loud and lively farmhouse just south of Nashville, Tennessee. Find her on Instagram @biblewilliams.

Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠KimberlyStuart.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more from this episode.

This episode was like a deep breath for me. Sarah Clarkson joins me to talk about reclaiming quiet. This is an audacious goal in such a relentless and noisy world, right? Sarah definitely lives in that real world, as you will hear. She is not cloistered, though she does live in an actual vicarage in actual England. Obviously I trusted her immediately. What I loved about this conversation is that Sarah puts up this beautiful scaffolding of what we get when we pay what she calls “holy attention” to the lives we’ve been given. Sign me up.

Sarah Clarkson is an author and blogger who writes regularly about literature, faith, and beauty at SarahClarkson.com. She studied theology (BTh, MSt) at Oxford and is the author or coauthor of six books, including This Beautiful Truth. She has an active following on Instagram (@sarahwanders) where she hosts regular live read-alouds from the poems, novels, or essays that bring her courage. She can often be found with a cup of good tea and a book in hand in her old English vicarage home in Oxford, where she lives with her Anglican vicar husband, Thomas, and their four children.

Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠KimberlyStuart.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more from this episode.

Liz Bell Young is with me today for a conversation I didn’t know how much I needed. I messaged her afterward and asked that we always be friends, as I am not one to hold back my undying admiration and love. You will want to message her the same thing once you hear her talk about real, uncomplicated hospitality and how to create havens for the people around you. Liz is an artist, an author, an experience designer, and she collaborates with really cool people at Magnolia and Anthropologie. She is also an approachable and lovely Midwest girl and after drinking in her new beautiful book, Let There Be Havens: An Invitation to Gentle Hospitality, I was honored to get to talk with her.

Liz Bell Young is a writer and experience designer. Author of the memoir In the Wide Country of Love and creator of the Anthropologie-distributed Haven magazine, Young is an MFA graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Cincinnati. Young is a contributing writer for Magnolia Journal, Artifact Uprising, and Darling, among others. Young founded Haven Creative Studio and is a creative consultant for clients, including Procter & Gamble, Crossroads Church, and Stan Smith Events. Young and her husband, Ryan, live in Ohio with their three children. Find her online at lizbellyoung.com and @lizbellyoung.

Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠KimberlyStuart.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more from this episode.

Hannah Brencher is on the other side of a fascinating experiment that helped her redefine what it means to be living in this time, this place, and what it really means to take good care of ourselves in this digital and depleting world. I’m coming out of a very intense work season, and I’m looking at the aftermath and wondering anew what it means to take good, deep care of ourselves and of each other in all seasons, not just the calm ones but the busy and sorrowful and mournful ones and happy and swamped seasons too. I’m curious about what I don’t know, and after a year of 1,000 unplugged hours, Brencher has a lot to say about what we can gain by giving up the lesser things.

Hannah Brencher is a writer, TED speaker, and entrepreneur. She founded The World Needs More Love Letters, a global community dedicated to sending letter bundles to those who need encouragement. Named as one of the White House’s “Women Working to Do Good,” Hannah has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Oprah, Glamour, USATODAY.com, the Chicago Tribune, and more. She lives in Atlanta with her husband, Lane, and daughter Novalee. Find Hannah at hannahbrencher.com and @hannahbrencher.

Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠KimberlyStuart.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more from this episode.

Happy summer and welcome to this special bonus episode of For Real! Today we are chatting about the glories of summer, most notably the State Fair! The Fair is a big deal around here, and it’s been that way for 170 years. Whether you are a Fair person or an air-conditioning-and-please-don’t-make-me-go-to-the-Fair person, I think you’ll love this behind-the scenes conversation about food competitions at the Fair. Let me just say I am not meant to be a judge in the tofu division. Carol McGarvey and Kay Fenton Smith have gathered history, human interest stories, and a treasure trove of blue ribbon recipes, and I had a blast hearing about their passion in this delightful, sunny conversation.

Kay Fenton Smith has been winning ribbons and learning the Iowa State Fair Food Competitions since 2007. She learned from her mom in upstate New York where she and her siblings also loved going to the State Fair in Syracuse.

A native of Boone and Perry, Iowa, Carol McGarvey is a proud graduate of Iowa State University with a B.S. in home economics journalism. She started as a food judge as part of her job as a features reporter for The Des Moines Register.

Learn more about their book, Baking Blue Ribbons, here.

Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠KimberlyStuart.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more from this episode.

The perfect guest joins us for this final episode of the season. Myquillyn Smith, also known as the Cozy Minimalist, is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, podcaster, and interior design mentor to millions. Myquillyn and I got to chat about her new book, House Rules: How to Decorate for Every Home, Style, and Budget. If you have always wondered if making your home the place you love has to cost a billion dollars and involve a team of experts, this conversation is for you! Myquillyn dispels that myth and instead arms us with the rules that make sense of design. Myquillan says to think of her approach as a fun decorating school you didn’t have to leave your house for and where your best friend is the professor. Bring in the fun and the friend professor! And bring in practical ways to help us bring beauty to the places where we live!

For the past ten years, Myquillyn Smith, also known as “The Nester,” has been encouraging women to embrace their homes—imperfections and all. Her lived-in, loved-on home has been featured in Better Homes & Gardens, Ladies' Home Journal and Cottages & Bungalows. Myquillyn is the author of The Nesting Place and Cozy Minimalist Home and was chosen by Christianity Today as one of the top twenty creatives in 2016. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and three boys. Find her online @thenester.

Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠KimberlyStuart.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more from this episode.

For this episode I have two lovely guests in the studio with me. Laura Klynstra and Mumtaz Mustafa join me to talk about their very odd jobs as creative directors and book designers and to chat about their new beautiful cookbook, Gather and Graze: Globally Inspired Small Bites and Gorgeous Tablescapes For Every Occasion. These two have a combined four decades or so of experience in the publishing industry, so I found it fascinating to peek behind the curtain of their work. In addition to that shared work, they also share a heart for both excellence in design and photography and for bringing people together around delicious food. I think you’ll leave our conversation feeling inspired and hungry, two of my favorite states of being.

Mumtaz Mustafa is an award-winning graphic designer working in branding, digital marketing, and focusing on book cover design. She is Senior Art Director at HarperCollins Publishers in charge of the lifestyle imprint Harvest Books. A native of Karachi, Pakistan, Mumtaz currently lives and works in New York City

Laura Klynstra is senior art director for Revell Books and a freelance graphic designer and photographer. Previously she worked as art director at Hyperion Books and at HarperCollins Publishers in New York City. She is the co-author and photographer of Christmas Baking and lives in Michigan with her family and a menagerie of dogs, cats, chickens, and ducks.

Find them on Instagram @spiceandsugartable, @mumtazmustafadesigns, and @lauraklyn

Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠KimberlyStuart.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more from this episode.