Sharla Goettl: How Sharing Stories Helps Youth Build Resilience

Stories of Hope in Hard Times

Sharla shares the story of her grandfather going from mobster to faithful follower of Christ and how telling true stories can help youth learn resilience.

Lessons from Grandfather

• You don’t have to be perfect to fulfill your life mission and to follow God.
• When you know God loves you, you can follow Him with complete trust and faith.

Episode Talking Points

• One prime example she uses in her newly released book, Spiritual Resilience: Leading Our Youth to Go and Do, is that of Nephi, a young man in the first chapters of the Book of Mormon, who left Jerusalem about 600 BC. Sharla explains that unlike Esther, Mary or Daniel, where we don’t have much of the backstory for why they chose to be faithful to God, that with Nephi we have many chapters.
• Sharla tells the story of walking away from a promising job in New York City because she kept feeling it wasn’t right—and how years later it all made sense.
• It’s important to teach youth the good stories and the stories where we have struggled in our lives.
• Youth need life-size examples of people trying to do what is right.
• The lessons learned from hiking into a cave with a group of young women that was pitch black.
• The Holy Ghost is part of our life on a daily basis—so follow the small promptings to send a text, talk to a friend, comfort someone who is sad.

How to teach youth to follow God’s Guidance

• Go and Do, take action
• Help them figure out their deepest why—what motivates them the most.
• Articulate why they want to follow Christ and believe that He will helps them fulfill their deepest desires in life.
• Teach youth that “our doubts and our testimonies can live along side each other.”

One of My Favorite Takeaways

I loved when Sharla shared that Christ loves us so much that He wants to interact in the details of our lives—big and small. It is a good reminder that our daily interactions matter to God and we can invite Him to be a part of all that we do.

Connect with Sharla

• https://sharlagoettl.com/
• You can also find her on social media
• Order Sharla’s new book here: https://www.amazon.com/Spiritual-Resilience-Leading-Our-Youth/dp/1736349600/

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Transcription

You can find the transcript for today's episode here: https://tamarakanderson.com/podcasts/sharla-goettl-how-sharing-stories-helps-youth-build-resilience