Telling Stories

What “hard” story do you struggle to tell? Tricia Goyer challenges us to take the leap.

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Telling Stories

By Tricia Goyer

One of my kids’ favorite things is to hear stories. They like stories about when John and I, or their grandparents, were growing up. These tales of antics, mishaps, and adventures from a bygone era offer a glimpse into our past. (Although even using the word bygone makes me feel old!)

Through these shared stories, our family history comes alive, and our children see that they are part of something bigger than themselves.

Hard Stories

Most of us have stories from the past that are difficult to tell. They may be about hard things done to us, or mistakes we made. For many years I trembled at just the idea of telling my kids about my teen years.

Seeking love in all the wrong places, I became sexually active at a young age. The first time I found myself pregnant was at age fifteen. When I went to a clinic for advice, they made me believe that a simple procedure, or in their words “scraping a few cells away,” could make this problem disappear. What teen doesn’t want what they think is an easy way out of their mistake? Yet as soon as I left that clinic, I regretted my decision. And when I became pregnant again by the same boyfriend a few years later, I made a different choice.

For years, I carried the heavy burden of my sins until I realized that Jesus had washed all my sins away the moment I surrendered my life to Him. And while I found healing through my deepening relationship with Jesus—and in the community of other women—I still worried about having to tell my kids.

Yet as my three oldest kids neared their preteen years, God called me to share my testimony in my church. My desire was to share my heartbreak and God’s healing. I wanted to offer hope to other women who carried heavy burdens. Knowing I wanted my children to first hear my story from me, and not from someone else who’d heard me at church, I told them about my past and my pain. Their tears, hugs, and unconditional love was a healing balm.

Then, as the years passed, I discovered that it gave them a voice on the matter. More than once I heard from a youth leader or adult friend about how one of my children related my story with other teens their age, sharing how what seems like an easy answer can bring decades of pain.

Although it’s difficult, revealing our past mistakes with authenticity and humility can help other people, including our children, learn the consequences of wrong living without having to face those consequences themselves. When I share my story, I also tell them that all of us make mistakes, and no matter what they’ve done they can turn to God—and to me and John—and we will always be there to love them. It’s a truth they can believe because they see us as living, walking examples of that.

Adapted from Faith That Sticks: 5 Real-Life Ways to Disciple Your Preteen by Tricia Goyer and Leslie Nunnery (© 2025). Published by Moody Publishers. Used by permission. 

Tricia Goyer is the author of more than 90 books, writing both fiction and nonfiction related to family and parenting. Her latest collaboration is Faith That Sticks, with Leslie Nunnery. A USA Today bestselling author, Tricia has won two Carol Awards and a Retailer’s Best Award. She is also an ECPA Silver Medallion winner and a Christy Award nominee.

Beloved for her World War Two fiction, Tricia has also written the bestselling Big Sky and Seven Brides for Seven Bachelors Amish series. She has spoken at events such as MomCon, Raising Generations, and Teach Them Diligently conferences, and hosts the podcasts The Tricia Goyer Show and The Daily Bible Podcast. Connect with Tricia at triciagoyer.com.