S4 16: Embracing True Festivity This Christmas With Haley Stewart
The Strong Women Podcast
Sarah Stonestreet
2.4 • 602 Ratings
🗓️ 29 November 2023
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Christmastime is a season of festivity—carols, parties, decorations, food. But do we understand the true meaning of festivity and its divine origins? Haley Stewart—mom, author, and editor at Word on Fire Spark—joins us this week to give us a true vision of festivity, one that begins with encountering God and responds with an overflow of joy for who He is and what He has done. Listen in for a rich conversation on true Christmas joy and finding echoes of festivity in our favorite Christmas stories. We also talk about how the countercultural practice of Advent prepares us to celebrate Christmas with greater joy.
Download your free Strong Women Advent resource guide! Advent begins Sunday, December 3rd. Explore "Prepare the Way of the Lord-Advent 2023" for books, devotional, music, and art that tunes your heart to worship in preparation for the coming King this Christmas season. Landed.Colsoncenter.org/advent
Mouse Nuns series by Haley Stewart and Elizabeth Wallin: The Pursuit of the Pilfered Cheese
"The Sham Practice of Christmas" article by Haley Stewart on the University of Notre Dame's Journal of Church Life
In Tune with the World, a Theory of Festivity by Joseph Peeper
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
The Reed of God by Caryll Houselander
Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
Silas Marner by George Elliot
Lord of the World by Robert Hugh Benson
Works of Mercy by Sally Thomas
Strong Women is partnering with our amazing friends at Drinklings to offer a special Flannery O'Connor mug and Strong Women coffee blend just in time for Christmas! Check out these products here and get yours today. These also make great Christmas gifts for the other Strong Women on your list!
Today, Christians face mounting pressure to conform to harmful secular ideologies about race, sexuality, human identity, and more. In response, the Colson Center seeks to equip believers with a Christian worldview on all these things, so they can know, live, and speak the truth in love. As we reach the end of the year, would you consider donating to support the ongoing work of the Colson Center? You can make your donation at colsoncenter.org/swyearend.
How do we remain faithful to Christ when our faith clashes with this cultural moment, or when we have to choose between conscience and career? We need courage, and courage must be cultivated. Join us at CCNC 2024 to find answers and tools to cultivate courageous faith for the specific challenges you face in this cultural moment. Speakers include Dr. Al Mohler, Father Calvin Robinson, Riley Gaines, Katy Faust, and more. For full speaker lineup and registration, go to colsonconference.org.
The Strong Women Podcast is a product of the Colson Center which equips Christians to live out their faith with clarity, confidence, and courage in this cultural moment. Through commentaries, podcasts, videos, and more, we help Christians better understand what's happening in the world, and champion what is true and good wherever God has called them. Learn more about the Colson Center here: https://www.colsoncenter.org/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, you guys, I'm excited to announce that we have partnered with our friends at Drinkling's |
| 0:09.4 | coffee to bring you guys a special strong women mug that has the face of Flannery O'Connor |
| 0:15.9 | on the front and a quote by her on the back, which is just fantastic. |
| 0:20.3 | And then Drinklings also put together a special Strong Women coffee blend. |
| 0:26.0 | What a great Christmas present this could be for one of your friends or for you to put on your wish list. |
| 0:32.6 | A Strong Women mug and a bag of coffee to go with it. |
| 0:36.6 | So we are going to put the link in the show notes |
| 0:39.4 | so you can find how to order that. |
| 1:04.5 | Welcome to the Strong Women podcast, where we explore the beautifully diverse ways God invites and equips women to participate in his story. |
| 1:15.2 | We're here to encourage one another as we step out of the shallow definitions of what it means to be a woman and into the flourishing life that comes when we walk out our design. |
| 1:16.7 | I'm so glad you're here. |
| 1:23.3 | Today on the Strong Women podcast, my guest is Haley Stewart. |
| 1:25.6 | She is a book-loving mama of four. She's authored several books, including one about Jane Austen, one about her family's adventures on a farm, and several children's books. |
| 1:34.1 | Haley, real quick, tell us about those children's books. |
| 1:36.8 | Like you said, they're mouse nuns. |
| 1:40.0 | Yes, so the idea came to me in a dream, so I was legally obligated to write these stories. And they're |
| 1:47.3 | about mouth nuns who live underneath the British writer G.K. Chesterton's house. And they're |
| 1:53.8 | inspired by his detective stories about Father Brown and they start solving local crimes. |
| 1:59.5 | I love that. Okay, we'll link that for you guys in the show notes. |
| 2:03.1 | She's also the editor of Word on Fire Spark, |
| 2:06.3 | which is the children's division of the publishing company. |
| 2:10.1 | So I first came across Haley several years ago |
... |
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