The Living Story: Healing from Heartbreak, Finding Purpose, and Learning to Live Again

E22 | You Are Not Behind | Why Comparing Your Life to Others Is Keeping You Stuck

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1951076/fan_mail/new] Before you compare your life to someone else’s, remember this: You joined their story in the middle. In this episode of The Living Story, we’re talking about comparison, social media, waiting seasons, and the quiet belief so many women carry that they are somehow “behind” in life. Maybe you thought you’d be married by now. Maybe you thought you’d have children, clarity, healing, purpose, or peace by now. Maybe you scroll through someone else’s life and wonder why their story seems to be moving while yours feels stuck. But what if you’re not behind at all? What if you’ve simply been comparing your page one to someone else’s page three hundred? In this episode, Tennille Martinez explores: *  why comparison is emotionally destructive  *  how social media distorts our timelines  *  the hidden middle chapters people never show  *  what the stories of Joseph and Hannah reveal about waiting  *  why God’s timing is not punishment  *  and how your “middle chapter” may actually be the place where transformation is happening most deeply  This episode is for the woman who feels overlooked, delayed, discouraged, or exhausted from measuring her life against everyone else’s. You are not behind. You are being formed. Support the show [https://aged-sky-9140.ck.page/products/tip-your-host] Bible Study: Join me every Wednesday, starting June 17th, at 7 PM EST for "Why Did This Happen," [https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/AauuJTMpSfW6KF0AtY-EjQ ] a free six-session live Bible Study for the woman who believes and still has questions. Register here to save your seat. [https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/AauuJTMpSfW6KF0AtY-EjQ ]  Her Story Begins. A six-week literary enrichment program for girls 13 to 17. Four cohorts. Summer 2026. Founding rate closes June 8. Registration is open now. Register here! [https://livingstorypodcast.systeme.io/herstorybegins] Enjoyed this episode? There's more waiting for you on Substack [https://substack.com/@middleofthestory]. Longer thoughts, quieter moments, and a community of women who get it. Come find us. If this episode stirred something in you, grab the free guide: I Thought I Would Be Further By Now: 5 Signs You Are Trying to Finish a Story God Is Still Writing. [https://livingstorypodcast.systeme.io/5signsfreebie] It is a gentle mirror for the woman who is still in the middle. My gift to you! [https://livingstorypodcast.systeme.io/5signsfreebie] Follow and connect with us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/livingstorypodcast/]!

E21 | The Stories I Told Myself Before I Met God | Healing Lies About Worth, Love & Purpose

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1951076/fan_mail/new] Before I met God, I had a whole library of stories I believed about myself. Stories about rejection. Worth. Being overlooked. Being too much and somehow not enough at the same time. Stories about love, purpose, identity, and whether I was chosen at all. In this episode of The Living Story, we’re talking about the quiet lies women carry for years — the ones repeated so often they stop feeling like stories and start feeling like truth. If you’ve ever struggled with: *  low self-worth  *  overthinking relationships  *  feeling unseen  *  people pleasing  *  fear of rejection  *  comparison  *  identity confusion  *  heartbreak  *  or believing you missed your purpose…  this conversation is for you. We explore: *  how false narratives are formed  *  why emotional wounds become internal beliefs  *  the stories women silently rehearse  *  what happens when God interrupts those narratives  *  and how healing begins through truth, surrender, and renewal of the mind Free Resource: Download “The Story She Keeps Telling Herself,” [https://livingstorypodcast.systeme.io/story_she_keeps_telling_herself_freebie]  a truth-and-lie reflection guide designed to help you identify the narratives shaping your life. My gift to you! [https://livingstorypodcast.systeme.io/story_she_keeps_telling_herself_freebie] Support the show [https://aged-sky-9140.ck.page/products/tip-your-host] Bible Study: Join me every Wednesday, starting June 17th, at 7 PM EST for "Why Did This Happen," [https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/AauuJTMpSfW6KF0AtY-EjQ ] a free six-session live Bible Study for the woman who believes and still has questions. Register here to save your seat. [https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/AauuJTMpSfW6KF0AtY-EjQ ]  Her Story Begins. A six-week literary enrichment program for girls 13 to 17. Four cohorts. Summer 2026. Founding rate closes June 8. Registration is open now. Register here! [https://livingstorypodcast.systeme.io/herstorybegins] Enjoyed this episode? There's more waiting for you on Substack [https://substack.com/@middleofthestory]. Longer thoughts, quieter moments, and a community of women who get it. Come find us. If this episode stirred something in you, grab the free guide: I Thought I Would Be Further By Now: 5 Signs You Are Trying to Finish a Story God Is Still Writing. [https://livingstorypodcast.systeme.io/5signsfreebie] It is a gentle mirror for the woman who is still in the middle. My gift to you! [https://livingstorypodcast.systeme.io/5signsfreebie] Follow and connect with us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/livingstorypodcast/]!

E20 | When Self-Help Is Not Enough: What I Found When I Finally Opened the Bible

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1951076/fan_mail/new] You read the books. You went to therapy. You journaled, processed, grew, and did everything the personal development world told you to do.  And something is still missing. Not because the work was wrong. Because there is a question underneath all of it that none of it could answer.  Am I actually known by something larger than all of this?  This episode is for the woman who has tried everything available and still feels like one piece is not quite in place.  What changed when the Bible stopped being something she circled from a distance and became something she actually opened.  And what it says about who she is that nothing else could tell her. Here is the free guide mentioned on today's episode: The Story She Keeps Telling Herself. [https://livingstorypodcast.systeme.io/story_she_keeps_telling_herself_freebie] It is a truth-and-lie finder for the woman who is ready to stop believing everything the middle has told her about who she is and who she will become. My gift to you! [https://livingstorypodcast.systeme.io/story_she_keeps_telling_herself_freebie] Support the show [https://aged-sky-9140.ck.page/products/tip-your-host] Bible Study: Join me every Wednesday, starting June 17th, at 7 PM EST for "Why Did This Happen," [https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/AauuJTMpSfW6KF0AtY-EjQ ] a free six-session live Bible Study for the woman who believes and still has questions. Register here to save your seat. [https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/AauuJTMpSfW6KF0AtY-EjQ ]  Her Story Begins. A six-week literary enrichment program for girls 13 to 17. Four cohorts. Summer 2026. Founding rate closes June 8. Registration is open now. Register here! [https://livingstorypodcast.systeme.io/herstorybegins] Enjoyed this episode? There's more waiting for you on Substack [https://substack.com/@middleofthestory]. Longer thoughts, quieter moments, and a community of women who get it. Come find us. If this episode stirred something in you, grab the free guide: I Thought I Would Be Further By Now: 5 Signs You Are Trying to Finish a Story God Is Still Writing. [https://livingstorypodcast.systeme.io/5signsfreebie] It is a gentle mirror for the woman who is still in the middle. My gift to you! [https://livingstorypodcast.systeme.io/5signsfreebie] Follow and connect with us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/livingstorypodcast/]!

E19 | The Gold Thread: How God Fills the Broken Places and Why Nothing in Your Story Was Wasted

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1951076/fan_mail/new] There is a Japanese art form called kintsugi. When pottery breaks, the artist repairs it with gold. The cracks do not get hidden. They become the most luminous part of the whole piece.  What if God works the same way in your story? What if the chapters you have been trying to get past are actually the chapters He has been filling with something that makes them the most beautiful part of what He is building?  This episode is a slow and honest look at the gold thread running through your life. Even the chapters that felt like detours. Even the ones you would rewrite if you could. Nothing was wasted. And the story He is telling through your life is more beautiful than you can see from where you are standing right now. Here is the free guide mentioned on today's episode: The Story She Keeps Telling Herself. [https://livingstorypodcast.systeme.io/story_she_keeps_telling_herself_freebie]  A truth and Lie Finder for the woman who is ready to stop believing everything the middle has told her about who she is. My gift to you. Support the show [https://aged-sky-9140.ck.page/products/tip-your-host] Bible Study: Join me every Wednesday, starting June 17th, at 7 PM EST for "Why Did This Happen," [https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/AauuJTMpSfW6KF0AtY-EjQ ] a free six-session live Bible Study for the woman who believes and still has questions. Register here to save your seat. [https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/AauuJTMpSfW6KF0AtY-EjQ ]  Her Story Begins. A six-week literary enrichment program for girls 13 to 17. Four cohorts. Summer 2026. Founding rate closes June 8. Registration is open now. Register here! [https://livingstorypodcast.systeme.io/herstorybegins] Enjoyed this episode? There's more waiting for you on Substack [https://substack.com/@middleofthestory]. Longer thoughts, quieter moments, and a community of women who get it. Come find us. If this episode stirred something in you, grab the free guide: I Thought I Would Be Further By Now: 5 Signs You Are Trying to Finish a Story God Is Still Writing. [https://livingstorypodcast.systeme.io/5signsfreebie] It is a gentle mirror for the woman who is still in the middle. My gift to you! [https://livingstorypodcast.systeme.io/5signsfreebie] Follow and connect with us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/livingstorypodcast/]!

E18 | Her Story Begins: What 20 Years in the Classroom Taught Me About the Stories Girls Tell Themselves

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1951076/fan_mail/new] Twenty years. Thousands of girls. And one thing that has never changed: the moment a girl decides she doesn't matter is the moment the world loses something it cannot afford to lose.  This episode is for every woman who remembers being that girl. And for every parent, mentor, or educator who has one in front of them right now.  Tennille Martinez opens up about what she has watched happen to girls in classrooms during her career, what she wished someone had said to her at twelve, and why she built Her Story Begins — a literary and identity experience that gives girls what the curriculum never could.  If you have a daughter, a niece, a student, or a girl in your community who is disappearing quietly into someone else's idea of who she should be, this episode is for you both. Support the show [https://aged-sky-9140.ck.page/products/tip-your-host] Bible Study: Join me every Wednesday, starting June 17th, at 7 PM EST for "Why Did This Happen," [https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/AauuJTMpSfW6KF0AtY-EjQ ] a free six-session live Bible Study for the woman who believes and still has questions. Register here to save your seat. [https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/AauuJTMpSfW6KF0AtY-EjQ ]  Her Story Begins. A six-week literary enrichment program for girls 13 to 17. Four cohorts. Summer 2026. Founding rate closes June 8. Registration is open now. Register here! [https://livingstorypodcast.systeme.io/herstorybegins] Enjoyed this episode? There's more waiting for you on Substack [https://substack.com/@middleofthestory]. Longer thoughts, quieter moments, and a community of women who get it. Come find us. If this episode stirred something in you, grab the free guide: I Thought I Would Be Further By Now: 5 Signs You Are Trying to Finish a Story God Is Still Writing. [https://livingstorypodcast.systeme.io/5signsfreebie] It is a gentle mirror for the woman who is still in the middle. My gift to you! [https://livingstorypodcast.systeme.io/5signsfreebie] Follow and connect with us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/livingstorypodcast/]!