The Living Story: Healing from Heartbreak, Finding Purpose, and Learning to Live Again
You have done the work. Read the books. Sat in the therapy chair. Said the prayers or maybe stopped saying them altogether. And something still is not landing. You are not broken. You are not behind. You are in the middle of a chapter that is longer and harder than anyone told you it would be. You feel stuck between who you were and who you are still becoming. And you are looking for someone who has been exactly where you are. Welcome to The Living Story. Hosted by Tennille Martinez, a teacher, storyteller, and woman of faith, this is a podcast for women in their 30s and 40s navigating healing, identity, heartbreak, and the long journey of finding themselves again after loss, divorce, depression, and the kind of pain that changes everything. Each episode weaves together personal testimony, scripture, and honest spiritual conversation for women who are done performing and ready to go deeper. Whether you are healing after divorce, recovering from heartbreak, rebuilding your sense of worth and purpose after loss, walking through depression and faith at the same time, or simply trying to find yourself again after a season that left you unrecognizable, there is a chapter here for you. This is not a podcast for women who have it together. This is a podcast for women who are still in the middle of it and need to know the middle is survivable. Faith will meet you here exactly where you are. Even if you are not sure you believe anymore. Even if you are angry. Even if the last thing you expected was for God to show up in a chapter that looked like this. If you have been searching for a podcast about healing, starting over, self-worth, identity, purpose, and becoming the woman you were created to be, you just found it. The chapters you least understand are often the ones that change everything. You don't just read stories. You are one.
Episodes
Have 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 the results. And that is what this e...
Have 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. Just five things God actually says abo...
I 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 held me to the ocean that changed ev...
I 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 setbacks. Sometimes they are setups.
T...
Do 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 reflections—from teaching and career shift...
Perfectionism 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 discover why God never asked us to be fla...
Do 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 2 Samuel, and my personal journey ...
Have 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 Hannah, we unpack the quiet ache of wa...
What 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 Garza, Elizabeth Bennet, Julieta M...
I 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 honesty.
We’ll walk through:
- The ...
After 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 Little Women helped both me and my s...
In 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 Santiago, Negi, Emoni, the Mirabal...
What 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 silence. The blank page.
This is th...
What 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 story of parents who carried me, a ...
What 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 places we wrestle, wait, and rise. Thes...
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