Christian YA Short Stories For Those Who Walk Through Fire

Are you looking for short, fictional reads that are entertaining, inspiring, and impossible to put down? What if the stories you binge-read could actually build your faith at the same time?

Welcome to Lauren Thell’s YA Christian fiction short story library! If you’re the kind of reader who cares about what you’re putting into your mind but you hate sacrificing quality, you’re in the right place. My Christian YA short stories are more than just quick reads. They’re packed with real-life struggles, characters you could meet on the street, and encouragement for teens who walk through fire.

“When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” 

Isaiah 43:2

If you feel like you’re the only believer in your school, these books are for you. Or maybe you’re homeschooled and you’re having a hard time finding Christian books for teens. Struggling with questions about God and faith? These books are for you as well!

Related: The Truth About Why I Write Christian YA Fiction

Inside this post, you’ll find fun facts, behind-the-scenes intelligence, and author insights that will enhance your reading experience of my Christian YA short stories. And don’t forget to check out the “Get the Book” section under each story to see how you can grab your own copy. Some are exclusive to subscribers, others are available on Amazon.

Ready to find a story that entertains while boosting your faith? Let’s dive in.

Hey, I’m Lauren, author of YA Christian fiction and blogger for teens with higher aim.

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Stand-Alone Christian YA Short Stories

The Day Hanna Hosanna Helped Cootie Judy

A YA Christian fiction short story about true friendship

“By not watching what happened next, we reduced the size of the audience that witnessed Jude’s humiliation. That made us the nice girls, right?”

-Hanna in The Day Hanna Hosanna Helped Cootie Judy

Jude Rohmann was that kid, the one everyone picked on and no one wanted to be seen with. After twelve months of pretending he didn’t exist, Hanna finally decided to stand up for him. 

But when her one impulsive act of defending the underdog from a bully sets off a chain reaction, Hanna is forced to confront her own cruelty and what it truly means to love your neighbor. And the more she gets to know the real Jude, the more Hanna realizes she can’t go back to ignoring him anymore. 

Behind the Story:

Have you ever met someone who makes you uncomfortable for reasons you can’t describe? Not necessarily because he’s a creep, but because he’s so . . . different. That’s who Jude is to Hanna. He’s the boy who smells weird, talks funny, and walks with his head down and his hair in his eyes.

But there’s more to this story than simply deciding whether or not to defend an underdog from bullies. Because there’s more to Jude than Hanna ever knew.

Fun Facts About The Day Hanna Hosanna Helped Cootie Judy:

• The opening bullying scene was taken right out of an experience I witnessed in high school. If you’re dealing with bullies, please read How to Deal With Bullying: 4 Tips For Teens.

• Hanna is an artist who’s enamored with “word art”—pictures made of words. The inspiration for her talent comes from Pennsylvania artist Dan Duffy, owner of Art of Words and creator of this piece, which is made entirely of the words from Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem The Raven and actually plays a part in the story. (Photo used with permission from Dan Duffy.)

Get the Book!

The Day Hanna Hosanna Helped Cootie Judy is free and available exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here for an instant download in the format of your choice.

One White Dark Night

A YA Christian fiction short story about chance & faith

“He looked like the losing end of a recent prize-fighting championship match. 
And Raine’s worst nightmare.”

One White Dark Night

Born without thumbs, sixteen-year-old Raine has learned to navigate a world that stares, whispers, and sometimes mocks. But at least her grandparents’ cozy diner, where she works as a waitress, offers a small amount of refuge from prying eyes. Until an angry teen boy arrives during the worst snowstorm of the year.

With a black eye, a split lip, and snow-laden clothing, the young stranger looks like he just lost a prizefighting championship match, then walked a mile in the blizzard. And Raine isn’t convinced he doesn’t have plans to rob her before the night is over. But he’s here at the diner—her sanctuary—and she has no choice but to serve him with a smile and pray that this hostile intruder moves on before he notices her strange hands.

So the last thing she needs is to feel God nudging her to share a verse from the Bible lying open on the counter.

Behind the Story:

The setting for One White, Dark Night came directly from my experience as a waitress in college. Slow evenings spent rolling silverware, cleaning coffee makers, waiting tables alone. . . It’s a great setup for something to happen. The original plot was about a waitress being teased by a group of construction workers. 

Raine considers the diner a haven from the teasing her malformed hands invoke. But then the teenage boy with the bruised face arrives. Little does she know the desperation he hides beneath his alarming exterior.

Have you ever gotten a nudge from God that you should do something or say something to someone? It usually doesn’t come when you expect it, as happens with Raine.

Fun Facts About One White Dark Night:

• Though it doesn’t say so, this story is set in Minnesota, where winter seems to go on for-ev-er. Alexandria is in west-central MN, about 60 miles from the border of the Dakotas.
• Raine’s character was based on a real girl I read about years ago who was born without thumbs and learned to adapt. Imagine holding a water glass or using scissors without thumbs. She could do it all!

Get the Book!

One White Dark Night is available for anyone on Amazon—no need to subscribe to my list! (Though occasionally I run free deals, so you might still want to subscribe to be notified about those.)

The Green Grass Grows Again

A YA Christian fiction short story romance

“Four weeks of exile does strange things to the mind. It makes you wonder over and over:
What if I’d chosen Jayden instead of Daniel?“

-Karima in The Green Grass Grows Again

Seventeen-year-old Karima Hadad had the perfect life until one impulsive decision handed her boyfriend the power to destroy her reputation overnight. Now the girl voted Most Likely to be America’s Next Top Model by her classmates is hiding behind her curtains, watching the world move on without her—and stealing glances at the boy she never should have pushed away. 

The Green Grass Grows Again is a tender, honest YA short story about a Christian teen who’s learning that shame is a liar, God’s love is louder than a locker room, and the clumsy-awkward boy next door might be the fresh start she no longer deserves.

Behind the Story:

If you’ve ever made a mistake so big you thought you couldn’t ever show your face again, you know exactly how Karima is feeling at the beginning of the story. Karima is a Christian teen girl who is dealing with major fallout after an incident of sexting. Not only has she socially isolated herself, but she’s experiencing major regret over having chosen the wrong boy in the first place.

This story recently got a major overhaul. The MC’s name was originally Mia, and while there may have been romantic moments before, only after my most recent edits could it be honestly labeled a romance. (Heads up: There is a bit of brief kissing!)

Fun Facts About The Green Grass Grows Again:

• Like Seasons of Kane #4, this book is set in my college town of La Crosse, WI. The Pearl is a real old-fashioned ice cream shop—a must-visit if you’re ever in the area. I highly recommend the marshmallow sundae.
• The title The Green Grass Grows Again was inspired by what happens after a field of dry, scrubby brush is burned off. Come back days later and see the beautiful green grass that has filled in. God does this to our souls as well.
• Isaiah 43:4 (Jayden’s tattoo) is one of my favorite Bible verses because it is one place in the Bible where God actually says those three little words: “I love you.” 

Get the Book!

The Green Grass Grows Again is free and exclusively available for subscribers. Sign up here for an instant download in the format of your choice.

Note: The following books are currently unavailable as I’m in the process of changing how I distribute my short stories. But stick with me—they’ll be back up soon! In the meantime, feel free to subscribe so you can be notified when they’re released again.

Gwendolyn Grace And All The Other Chicks

A contemporary YA Christian fiction short story about loss & grief

“Compared to my stepfamily, I look like the Incredible Hulk. It’s painfully obvious I don’t belong.”

-Beatrice in Gwendolyn Grace And All the Other Chicks

After her father’s death, seventeen-year-old Beatrice is left with shaken faith and a stepfamily that doesn’t know what to do with her. Her only friend is the quirky boy from down the road whom she could pummel in an arm-wrestling contest. Then her stepmother gives her a flock of baby chicks with the hope that Bea will find her purpose again.

Behind the Story:

This was my first attempt at writing a story in the first-person point of view, and I loved how it turned out so much, I switched all my current novels to first-person POV as well.

I also wanted to go against the norm that all stories should feature beautiful, feminine women and muscular, handsome guys. Some people just don’t fit the standards for their gender’s body type, such as Bea with her tall, husky form, and Kai with his scrawniness.

But that doesn’t mean they don’t have a story to tell.

As a rule, an author should know something about what she’s writing about. (Though I’ve become a pseudo-expert in a lot of things since I started writing.) Which is why chicks—not horses—played a big role. I grew up raising chickens, and my family has them again now. We raise our chickens from the chick stage, and they’re adorable when they’re little!

But the story isn’t just about chickens and people who stray from conventional appearances. This is a story about working through grief.

Fun Facts About Gwendolyn Grace And All the Other Chicks: 

• When Beatrice says, “Chickens have a fetish for shiny things,” this is absolutely true in real life. One of my neighbors had a chicken pluck an earring right out of her ear. I don’t dare walk amongst my chickens in sandals with painted toenails.
• When the power goes out during a winter storm on the farm (as happens in the story), it truly is a game against time. Water pipes can freeze, animals still need to be fed, and life must carry on. My husband still remembers milking their entire herd of dairy cows by hand with his dad and brother when a storm knocked out the power for three days. If you’ve never done that before, it’s a lot harder than most children’s books make it seem!

UnTainted

A short YA Christian fiction friends-to-lovers romance . . . or maybe not.

“That Night would have broken her if not for him.”

UnTainted

Val and Zach have been best friends for years. He’s the shy, sweet counterpoint to her intrepidness—and her hero from the night that would’ve broken her. Since then, her feelings for Zach have blossomed into something more and she’s ready to explore new boundaries. Then she learns something about him that turns her world upside down.

Trigger warnings: This story mentions sexual assault. No graphic details are given.

Behind the Story:

Who doesn’t love a good friends-to-lovers story? But this one is so much more—and so much more than the original version, previously titled You + Me = Forever. What started as a sweet romance told in split points of view wasn’t enough for me a year or two after I wrote it. I started to wonder: What if there were secrets? What if there was betrayal?

What makes Christian fiction “Christian”? Is the mention of Jesus in a favorable light or the presence of characters who pray, go to church, and strive to follow Biblical teachings? There seems to be an ongoing debate between authors and readers alike. Most mainstream fiction neatly avoids matters of faith (or ridicules it), but I’ve also noticed the flip side of the coin, where Christians criticize YA Christian fiction that isn’t Christian enough. 

My goal for fiction writing is not to preach but to show Christians in action and how they handle adversity, peril, fear, frustration, etc. Val and Zach’s story is raw and emotional, but everything they do is influenced by Christ’s love for them and the Biblical values they have been taught.

Fun Facts About UnTainted:

• Horses + Me = Disaster! I am more like Val in this story: I enjoy horses and ponies from a distance. In fact, one of my most vivid memories of riding a pony is actually evidence of God’s active intervention in my life. I was just a kid when the pony I was riding decided to take off at a sprint across the field, against my will. I screamed, I tried to get it to stop, I finally jumped. Then my foot got caught in the stirrup. This is where the story should have turned gruesome. Imagine being dragged over rocks, trapped under the hooves of a galloping pony, unable to free yourself… But the pony stopped. God must have pulled the reins. Needless to say, I don’t ride horses much anymore.
• I have an aunt, however, who loves horses and is very good with them. Her name also happens to be Val (a coincidence or a subconscious choice, I’m not sure). Zach’s horse “Nicker” got his name from one of Aunt Val’s horses.

More Resources for Christian YA Fiction Lovers

Need another reason to subscribe to my blog & newsletter? Subscribers also get publishing news, weekly blog updates, and monthly recommendations for clean and Christian books for teens. Don’t miss out!

Other helpful content for Christian YA readers:

• 6 Red Flags to Watch For In YA Christian Fiction
• Standout Characters In YA Novels: A Few of Lauren’s Favorites

Lauren’s reading lists for Christian Teens:

Happy reading!

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