{"id":17526,"date":"2026-03-10T14:27:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T14:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/telling-my-story\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:03:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:03:52","slug":"telling-my-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/inspiring-stories\/stories-of-faith-and-hope\/telling-my-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Telling My Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wrote a story<\/a> for the April issue of GUIDEPOSTS magazine. When it came out, I showed it to a few people, then carefully filed my copies away and went back to work. I didn\u2019t really tell many people, and I didn\u2019t do much to celebrate. Hopefully, my story would inspire someone, and that would be celebration enough.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p>Then last week I got a frantic email from my mother: \u201cWHY DIDN\u2019T YOU TELL ME YOU HAD A STORY IN GUIDEPOSTS MAGAZINE?!\u201d I could practically hear the hurt in the email.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p>My first reaction was frustration. Who had outed me? I demanded to know who told her about it. Apparently my mom\u2019s friend Leta is a subscriber and had brought the magazine in to work and shown it around to all my mom\u2019s co-workers. Argh<\/i>. So now not only did my mom know, but all of my mom\u2019s friends knew too.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p>I wrote back and told my mom something about how I just hadn\u2019t quite gotten around to mentioning it yet, and promised I\u2019d send her a copy of the magazine. Then I bent over and hit my head on my desk. I should have known that with 5 million readers, someone would have pointed the story out to my mom. I should have just told her about it.<\/p>\n

So why didn\u2019t I?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p>The truth is, my story, like all stories in GUIDEPOSTS, is very personal. It\u2019s about a time when I was incredibly vulnerable and questioning everything I thought I knew. The life my parents had built for me and the faith my mom had passed down to me was a part of that.<\/p>\n

Somehow, I was kind of embarrassed for her to know about that. I guess I didn\u2019t really want her to see how badly I had struggled. For some reason, telling my story to the 5 million readers of GUIDEPOSTS didn\u2019t seem like a big deal, but opening up to the people I love about what was really going on in one of the most difficult periods of my life felt a lot more scary.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p>Isn\u2019t it funny how the people we love most are the hardest to be honest with?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p>After my mom\u2019s reaction, I sent a copy to my grandfather, and he called me last night to tell me he\u2019d shown it off at church as soon as it came in the mail. He also said he was proud of me, which I think is what my mom was trying to say too. So I guess opening myself up was worth it in the end\u2014I know at least two people who the story helped.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p>Actually, counting me, I know three. <\/span><\/p>\n

Beth Adams is the creator and editor of GUIDEPOSTS’<\/em> Home to Heather Creek<\/a> fiction series.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wrote a story for the April issue of GUIDEPOSTS magazine. When it came out, I showed it to a few people, then carefully filed my copies away and went back to work. I didn\u2019t really tell many people, and I didn\u2019t do much to celebrate. 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