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The Living Story: Healing from Heartbreak, Finding Purpose, and Learning to Live Again
The Living Story: Healing from Heartbreak, Finding Purpose, and Learning to Live Again
This podcast offers honest spiritual conversation for women in their 30s and 40s who are healing from heartbreak, divorce, depression, and loss. Hosted by Tennille Martinez, a teacher, storyteller, and woman of faith, it explores identity, purpose, and rebuilding self-worth. Each episode blends personal testimony, scripture, and reflection for listeners who feel stuck between who they were and who they are becoming. It speaks to women who are done performing and are ready to go deeper in their healing journey.
Episodes
E33 | Your Story Isn’t Over: Trusting God in an Unfinished Chapter
Send us Fan MailHow do you trust God when you cannot see how your story will end?In this episode of The Living Story, Tennille shares encouragement for Christian women facing heartbreak, unanswered prayers, grief, uncertainty, and unexpected endings. A quiet moment in her church helped her realize that a painful chapter had ended, but God had continued writing.Through the biblical stories of Naomi
E32 | Trusting God When You Never Get the Answer | I Never Got My Why - Part 10
Send us Fan MailFor a long time, I believed healing would begin the day I finally understood why.Why the relationship ended.Why the prayer wasn't answered.Why life unfolded the way it did.That day never came.Instead, God gave me something I didn't know I needed. He transformed my heart, reminded me who I was, and taught me to trust Him even when the answers never arrived.In the final par
E31 | When Healing Isn't Linear. I Still Go Back Sometimes And That's Okay | I Never Got My Why - Part 9
Send us Fan MailHave you ever thought you were healed, only to find yourself asking the same questions all over again?Maybe a conversation caught you off guard.Maybe you heard news you weren't expecting.Maybe a memory resurfaced, and suddenly it felt like you were back where you started.If you've ever wondered whether that means you've failed, this conversation is for you.In Part 9
E30 | How God Uses Pain for Purpose | I Never Got My Why - Part 8
Send us Fan MailWhat if God was building something while you were still asking why?In Part 8 of the I Never Got My Why series, Tennille shares how healing often happens quietly—and how purpose can begin emerging long before we recognize it.Through Isaiah 43:18-19 and her own story of heartbreak, healing, and unexpected community, she explores what it looks like to move from searching for answers t
E29 | How to Heal from Rejection When Someone Doesn't Choose You | I Never Got My Why - Part 7
Send us Fan MailWhy does rejection hurt so deeply?In Part 7 of the I Never Got My Why series, Tennille shares a powerful realization from her healing journey: she was asking another person questions only God could answer.Through the story of the woman in Mark 5, this episode explores healing after heartbreak, the pain of rejection, and the identity wounds that often leave us wondering if we are en
E28 | She Showed Up and She Was Not Okay | I Never Got My Why - Part 6
Send us Fan MailWhat if the breakthrough wasn't pretending you're fine?In this episode of The Living Story Podcast, Tennille explores the story of Hannah and the moment she stopped hiding her grief. For women carrying heartbreak, disappointment, unanswered prayers, or seasons that feel impossibly heavy, Hannah offers a different picture of faith than many of us were taught.She didn'
E27 | When Your Heart Hasn't Caught Up Yet | I Never Got My Why - Part 5
Send us Fan MailWhat happens when your mind knows the truth, but your heart is still grieving?In this episode of The Living Story Podcast, Tennille shares the lesson she learned in the aftermath of heartbreak: understanding something intellectually is not the same as accepting it emotionally.If you've ever known what God was saying but still felt stuck in sadness, disappointment, or unanswere
E26 | When God Doesn't Change the Season | I Never Got My Why - Part 4
Send us Fan MailIn Part 4 of the I Never Got My Why series, Tennille explores the true context behind Jeremiah 29:11 and why God's promise of hope and a future was first spoken to people living in exile.What happens when God doesn't change the season?Through the story of Israel in Babylon, this episode explores how to stop putting your life on hold while waiting for the next chapter and
E25 l You Are Not the Only One Who Asked | I Never Got My Why - Part 3
Send us Fan MailIn Episode 3 of I Never Got My Why, Tennille explores the wilderness story of Hagar and the powerful name she gives God in the middle of unanswered questions: El Roi, the God who sees me.This episode is about isolation, edited pain, emotional honesty, and the deep human need to be seen fully in suffering.Inside this episode:Hagar in Genesis 16El Roi, the God who seesemotional isola
E24 | When “Why” Becomes the Room You Live In | I Never Got My Why - Part 2
Send us Fan MailWhy do some questions stay with us long after the moment that created them?In Episode 2 of I Never Got My Why series, Tennille explores what happens when heartbreak, disappointment, and unanswered prayers stop being something we experience and start becoming the emotional place we live.Through the story of Naomi in Ruth 1, personal reflections, and an honest conversation about the
E23 | Why Am I Still Stuck? | I Never Got My Why Series - Part 1
Send us Fan MailWhy can’t I move on… even when I know the relationship is over?In this first episode of the I Never Got My Why series, I explore the emotional and spiritual exhaustion of living inside unanswered questions. If you’ve ever wrestled with heartbreak, grief, disappointment, emotional looping, or wondering why God allowed something painful to happen, this episode is for you.Through hone
E22 | You Are Not Behind | Why Comparing Your Life to Others Is Keeping You Stuck
Send us Fan MailBefore 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, purpos
E21 | The Stories I Told Myself Before I Met God | Healing Lies About Worth, Love & Purpose
Send us Fan MailBefore 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
E20 | When Self-Help Is Not Enough: What I Found When I Finally Opened the Bible
Send us Fan MailYou 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
E19 | The Gold Thread: How God Fills the Broken Places and Why Nothing in Your Story Was Wasted
Send us Fan MailThere 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 par
E18 | Her Story Begins: What 20 Years in the Classroom Taught Me About the Stories Girls Tell Themselves
Send us Fan MailTwenty 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 watch
E17 | When Healing Keeps Restarting: What I Learned About Letting Go & Reaching Back
Send us Fan MailI deleted messages on WhatsApp. More than once. And every time I did, I restarted the clock on my own healing without realizing it. If you have ever reached back for something God already moved, if you have ever stood in a room with tears running down your face while worship music played and wondered why it was not getting easier, this episode is for you. This is what real healing
E16 | You Don't Know the Full Story: Why Secondhand Faith Always Leads to Doubt
Send us Fan MailI was angry at God for years. And the honest truth is that most of my anger was built on a version of Him I had never actually taken the time to know.I had heard about Him. I had sat in rooms where people talked about Him. I had consumed the content, the books, the sermons. But I had never done the work of sitting with His word myself, letting the Holy Spirit correct me, letting th
E15 | What Watching The Testaments Taught Me About the Character of God
Send us Fan MailI was sitting on the couch with my mom, three episodes deep into The Testaments on Hulu, when something came out of me before I knew I was going to say it.That is not the God I know.And I have not been able to stop thinking about it since.In this episode, I am getting into all of it. Margaret Atwood and why her storytelling stopped me cold in The Handmaid's Tale and pulled me
E14 | When You Are Waiting for Results: What I Found in a Hospital Room During Holy Week
Send us Fan MailHave you ever been in a hard week and needed to know things were going to be okay?This Holy Week, I found myself in a hospital waiting room. I had been avoiding going to the doctor for weeks because I was too busy, too scared of what sitting still might force me to face. Everything was going to be okay. Even if it was not, everything was going to be okay.But the peace came before t
E13 | What God Actually Says About You When You Are Still Healing: Seen, Known, Chosen, Renewed, Held
Send us Fan MailHave you ever felt like healing was for everyone else but somehow not quite available to you? Like you were doing everything right and still felt like you were behind where you were supposed to be? This Selah episode is for the woman who is raw and hurting, the woman in the long, quiet middle, and the woman who is almost through, but not yet whole. Not a lecture. Not a formula. Jus
E12 | When God Claims You Before Your Life Is Ready: Baptism, Heartbreak, and the Gold Thread Running Through It All
Send us Fan MailI was baptized at sunrise on the beach with my church community. One week later, the relationship ended. Same week. Same breath. If you have ever had a chapter that cost you more than you thought you had to give and still cannot quite explain what God was doing inside it, this is that episode. This is my full testimony. From the accident that took my voice to the fifty books that h
E11 | What God Does in the Silence: Why I Was Gone and What Happened When I Finally Came Back
Send us Fan MailI was gone for six almost seven months. And if you have ever stepped away from something you loved because life asked too much of you all at once, this episode is for you. A new subject I had never taught before. A hunger for the Word I could not explain or ignore. And healing that does not arrive on a schedule. What I discovered is that the seasons that go quiet are not always set
E10 | Fear of Sharing Your Story: What Jeremiah, Moses, Esther & The Poet X Teach Us About Courage
Send us Fan MailDo you struggle with the fear of sharing your story—afraid of being judged, misunderstood, or rejected? In this episode of The Living Story, we explore why so many women hesitate to tell their stories and how God can transform fear into freedom.Through the lens of Elizabeth Acevedo’s novel The Poet X, the biblical journeys of Jeremiah, Moses, and Esther, and my own personal reflect
E9 | Overcoming Perfectionism in Work, Relationships, and Faith
Send us Fan MailPerfectionism promises peace but leaves us exhausted. In this episode of The Living Story, I share the quiet ways perfectionism shows up in our lives at work, in relationships, and in our faith, and how to finally let it go.Through the sharp precision of Lessons in Chemistry’s Elizabeth Zott, the striving of Martha in Luke 10, the résumé of Paul, and the failure of Peter, we discov
E8 | Rewriting the Pain: What Esperanza and Tamar Taught Me About Voice, Worth & Healing
Send us Fan MailDo you keep replaying the same painful inner narrative? The one that whispers, “You’re not enough,” “You’ll never be loved,” or “This is just how it is”?In this powerful episode of The Living Story, we explore how to stop rehearsing lies and start rewriting the truth with God. Featuring reflections on The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, the heartbreaking story of Tamar in
E7 | Wrestling with God’s Timing: What Janie, Joseph, and My Healing Journey Taught Me About Delay
Send us Fan MailHave you ever wondered if God forgot about you? If the delay in your life means the promise has passed you by?In this soul-stirring episode of The Living Story, we explore what it means to wrestle with trusting God’s timing when nothing is going according to plan. Through the lens of Janie Crawford from Their Eyes Were Watching God and the biblical stories of Joseph, Sarah, and Han
E6 | He Brought Me to the Door, But God Brought Me Inside
Send us Fan MailWhat if the people who walked you to the door can’t take you inside?In this episode, I share how God used unexpected transitions, a new teaching job, a fresh heartbreak, and a church I didn’t choose to walk me through sacred thresholds of healing, identity, and surrender.We explore the symbolism of thresholds through the lives of beloved literary heroines like Jane Eyre, Tita de la
E5 | Hermoso Momento: My Ocean Baptism & the Worship Song That Healed Me
Send us Fan MailI never planned on being baptized again, but God did.In this deeply personal episode, I share the story of my unplanned baptism in the ocean, the worship song that carried me through heartbreak and change, and the sacred moment where surrender became healing. Surrounded by community, covered in prayer, and held by Spirit, I said yes to God again—but this time, from a place of deep
E4 | The Girl Who Lost Her Voice (And Found It in the Margins)
Send us Fan MailAfter my car accident, I lost the ability to write, even journal entries or sticky notes. As a storyteller, writer, journaler, and teacher, that silence hit hard. But in the margins of books, of random words on a sticky note, of life, God met me.In this episode, I share how writing became part of my healing journey, and how stories like The Outsiders, The Diary of Anne Frank, and L
E3 | The Books That Saved Me: How Fiction, Faith & Characters Helped Me Rebuild My Life
Send us Fan MailIn this deeply personal episode of The Living Story, I take you through the books that didn’t just fill my shelves—they healed my soul. After surviving a near-fatal car accident and navigating a season of exhaustion, disconnection, and spiritual burnout, I found restoration in the most unexpected place: fiction.Join me as I share the sacred stories and unforgettable characters—like
E2 | The Blank Notebook: When You Can’t Go Back to Who You Were
Send us Fan MailWhat happens when life forces you to start from scratch?In this episode, I share how my first podcast planted the seeds for something deeper, but never quite scratched the surface of why stories matter. It was beautiful, but it wasn’t the whole truth. I enjoyed the interviews, the insights, the flow… but I was craving more—connection, reflection, calling.Then came the accident. The
E1 | Before the Blessing: When the Breaking Becomes the Beginning
Send us Fan MailWhat if the unraveling isn’t the end—but the sacred beginning?In this premiere episode of The Living Story, I share the truth behind my podcast’s transformation—from hustle to healing, from strategy to surrender. After a life-changing car accident, I was forced to slow down, sit in the silence, and confront the stories I had built my worth on.This isn’t just my pivot story. It’s a
Welcome to The Living Story: Where Fiction Meets Faith and Your Healing Begins
Send us Fan MailWhat if the stories you loved held the healing you needed?Welcome to The Living Story—a podcast that weaves fiction, scripture, and personal reflection into sacred conversations about identity, healing, and becoming.Each week, host Tennille Martinez invites you into a narrative journey where unforgettable characters, timeless biblical figures, and real-life moments meet in the plac
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