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Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of inspirational short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

Inspirational Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. From tales of the miraculous to stories of extraordinary people overcoming incredible odds, you’ll always find something uplifting in our collection of inspirational short stories.

Inspirational Short Stories – Page 6

Now or Never?

Ignat Mona-Lisa

Weekly Contest #360

In high school, I believed that a breakthrough was supposed to happen at some point and show me what I should be doing with my life and be somehow exciting.I imagined it would be a single moment where everything suddenly made sense. A life-changing conversation with a friend. The right person, at the right time. A miracle that would come at the right time and pull me out of the darkness and show me bits of light.That was the moment I waited for. I waited a couple of years in high school. A couple in college. A couple more after that.I waited...

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Professor Schnooz-Breaking Through Schleep (Sleep) Barriers

Weekly Contest #360

Major Prompt: Write about a breakthrough that arrives just in time or much too late.Prompt: Your character wakes up from a dream with a long-awaited idea or answer. Professor Schnooz-Breaking Through Schleep (Sleep) Barriers Attendees of the very first narcolepsy/sleep conference file into the conference center in the town of Sleepy Hollow on the rustic shores of New Bedshire. A speaker dressed in a white lab coat is broadcasting on the auditorium stage. He begins with the announcement; “Welcome to the first annual Narco Meet, Greet and Sl...

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Kismet

R Ghat

Weekly Contest #360

We regret to inform you that you have not been accepted.. The rest of the heartbreakingly formal rejection blurs as the wave of anguish finally drags Christabel under. It’s not the distant words themself, but her realization that this was the last one. The final and tenth dream school she applied to. Swiping at her eyes, a quick click transports her back to her inbox, where eight other rejections sit, scoffing at her inadequacy. Not to mention the true knife in her side - the fact that her top choice didn’t even deign to send her a response...

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What’s Happening to Me

Valery Rubin

Weekly Contest #360

A single, well‑aimed shot can change the world. Think of JFK — John Fitzgerald Kennedy. And don’t be naïve: they’re hunting you too. Stay alert. Even when life feels smooth and harmless, it can overturn itself in a heartbeat. Paranoia? Hardly. Panic? That’s something far more sinister — a sudden, nightmarish surge of fear. It settles deep in your gut, makes itself comfortable, and screams from the inside out. A primal fear, the most dangerous and irrational kind. It sinks its teeth into the back of my brain and refuses to let me breathe. Our...

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Right on Cue

Weekly Contest #360

Isn’t it strange how time can play tricks on you? Depending on where you are, time will either feel long, as if you’ve been lost in a desert, dehydrated for ages, even if you are perfectly hydrated and sitting in comfort and air conditioning. Or the other option, you may feel so ecstatic that time will fly by, and you find yourself doubting if it really happened at all. “Janet?” my therapist, Megan’s sharp voice pulls me out of my thoughts and back to reality. I take a deep breath and force my eyes to meet hers. “Yes, sorry Megan. I guess I ...

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3 Minutes Before

Gia Luciano

Weekly Contest #360

The stranger appeared three minutes before the train arrived.At first, Genesis barely noticed him.People came and went through the station every day—businessmen with wrinkled suits, students with backpacks and heavy headphones, exhausted parents chasing toddlers, and the daily panhandlers who had become more permanent fixtures than the digital schedules posted overhead. He seemed no different from anyone else.Or so she thought.Then he sat beside her.Not across the platform.Not a few seats away.Directly beside her.Ordinarily, that was far to...

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Something Borrowed, Something Bought

Mary Butler

Weekly Contest #360

Five minutes before my father sells me as salvation, Aunt Margot tells me my lipstick is too red for a Hartwell bride. The mirror gives me back a stranger. Ivory silk, borrowed pearls, a smile I have practiced so many times it no longer belongs to my face. Red is exactly right. Red is warning. Red is blood. Red is the color of every stop sign I ignored on the way to becoming Julian Voss's wife. "You look exactly like your grandmother did," Margot says, tugging a pearl into place at my collarbone. Her fingers are cool and precise, the hands o...

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The movement

Weekly Contest #360

Zen carefully poked his head around the heavy velvet curtain and peered out into the auditorium. The sight made his stomach tighten. Every seat was occupied, leaving people lining the walls while others stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the aisles. There had to be at least a thousand people in attendance, all waiting for him. “How did it come to this?” he muttered under his breath. He stepped back, retreating into the shadows where the crowd couldn't see him. The chanting grew louder. “Zen! Zen! Zen!” The rhythmic roar rolled through the buil...

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The Road to Bethlehem

Weekly Contest #360

As an angry sun rose burning the back of Samuel’s eyes, an outline of a small town soon emerged. Resisting the urge to close his eyes to the blazing sun, Samuel was reminded of his advancing age. His vision and suffering were slowly leeching away any pleasure he had left, leaving him with nothing but the memories of a magnificent life. The rays from the sun punished him, reminding him of his failure, but he refused to reminisce about it. The past was the past, and there could be no changing it. For now, he had to look at the present. Samuel ...

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The Tale of Two Flags: It's the Third One that Matters

Alex Ghani

Weekly Contest #360

I hesitate to contribute this story in honor of Pride Month given widespread prejudice. I mean to share a story. If it offends the editors or readers, you are welcome to stop reading. Back when I used to live on Halsted Street in Chicago, my roommates and I would display two large Pride flags outside the bay windows facing the famous street of Halsted at the beginning of June for the month. Over the years, the brilliance of their colors faded from the monthlong sun exposure, perhaps a reflection of our own brilliance. And then there was the...

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Thirst, Healing and the Anticipation of Dying

Weekly Contest #360

Thirst, Healing And The Anticipation of DyingBy Penni WarfordBreakthrough Between Family Members(This story revolves around death) When I entered her room at the nursing home early that morning, I stood in the doorway and observed for a moment. Even beneath thick layers of blankets, it was apparent that she was skin and bone thin. She lay on her back, her eyes closed, with her skeletal, blue-tinged hands resting on her chest like a metaphor for the death that beset her. I stroked her upper arm softly and whispered, “Hi mom.” As she peeled he...

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A Daughter's Kiss

Michael Charnley

Weekly Contest #360

A Daughter’s KissIt is Monday morning, and I am walking to work. Yesterday’s thunderstorm has filled the ditch with grey-green rainwater. The hawthorns, ferns, ash and oak and a hundred other species of trees and plants line the disused railway track; they are reinvigorated and a new perfume has replaced last night’s petrichor, cheerily soothing Friday’s dusty itch. I walk this way every day and know this path, which links our flat with my office, so well. I anticipate each undulation. The gates and paths which lead toward the horses’ field ...

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Unconditional

Marie Seiferman

Weekly Contest #360

Warning this story for mature audience contains themes of physical abuse. UNCONDITIONAL BY Marie Could this be love? For as long as I could remember, I wondered what the answer to that question was. Was love an action to be shown, or was it something said out loud? “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so,” was easy to sing, but confusing to understand when I was five. How exactly did a Bible show love?"We show our love when we provide and give to our kids," my dad once told a friend. I...

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Chicken 65 Tacos

Madeleine Meyyappan

Weekly Contest #360

Vishal loves to cook. Every morning he scampers downstairs, fuzzy slippers sliding over each step. He pulls bowls from the lower cabinet. Metal rims clink against stacked pots and pans. Some mornings he makes muffins, some mornings he makes dosa. He loves the “pop” and “crackle” of mustard seeds when he and Dad spread them in the pan. He always spins the mixing spoon to blend cinnamon and cardamom into pale, wet dough when making dosa. When baking popovers, he’ll always poke the top with a fork to make sure the buttery, flaky bread is perfe...

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The Back of the Book

Bill & Mia Belew

Weekly Contest #359

The Back of the Book I have read the back of the book and the good news is we win. There is another lesson that can be learned from the back of the book as well – things are not always what they appear to be.* * * My younger boy, Micah, was rough. Blame it on his dad, me, who was not there during his formative years. I separated from his mother when his age was still in the single digits. As a result, in the years that followed, he skipped school at times, didn’t study much, if at all, and tried to get in with the wrong crowd. Now, h...

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