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I remember my wife and me sitting next to a girl in the hospital. She was 13 years old and had tried to commit suicide. I couldn’t help thinking, what if she had succeeded? What great things was she missing out on because hadn’t known how to manage her emotions?  She was only 13 and she had her whole life ahead of her. What if she had been able to deal with her feelings and become someone who helps other people going through similar problems and people found hope in her story instead of depression or anger? What if YOU did? If you don’t run your emotions, your emotions will run you. If your emotions run you they can ruin your life. But that doesn’t have to be your story. You can run your thoughts and emotions and begin to give yourself your best life today. Depression and anxiety are products of your thoughts! This means if you can win in your thought life you can win in your emotion. So let me coach you in the battle of your mind so you can win the war in your emotions. 

Day 1

Read: 1 Samuel 30:1-6; Proverbs 18:21

In 1 Samuel 30 David experiences something so scary, so horrible we can hardly imagine it. His family, his friends’ family,  belongings, and everything they own have been kidnapped and they have no idea where they are or if they will ever see them again. And here’s the thing, when you’re in charge, all the blame falls on you. David’s best friends want to KILL HIM. David has to act, he can’t freeze up. What does He do? 

It says David encouraged himself in the Lord. He didn’t wait for someone to pick him up, there was no one who wanted to. He didn’t start vaping and smoking some marijuana. He didn’t binge on Netflix and try to avoid it. He encouraged Himself in the Lord. This involves talking to yourself. Yes! Talking to yourself, with the truth and God’s word is the healthiest thing you could do. It doesn’t make you crazy. It makes you healthy! 

Proverbs 18:21 says that life and death are in the power of your tongue. Your words. And those who love it will eat its fruit. 

How you speak to yourself Matters! If you’re telling yourself that you’re dumb, ugly, stupid, hate yourself, fat, a reject or whatever else, that is the fruit you will eat and that’s what you will produce in your life. But you can’t just come up with positive life statements and make fiction a fact. You have to base your words on TRUTH! God’s truth. 

So you can’t just say, “I’m the smartest person in the world! Or Algebra is easy for me! Or I’m super skinny, " if you’re not. But you can take the word of God and remind yourself: Psalm 139:14 says God has incredibly and wonderfully created me. I’m not junk. I’m His masterpiece according to Ephesians 2:10. My mind was made to understand. I’m loved by God even if people reject me. Life is hard now but God works everything together for good according to Romans 8:28. 

Challenge: Create a truth statement from God’s word to say to yourself every day and when you need to encourage yourself. Ask your parents or youth leaders to help you find verses. 

Day 2

Read: Proverbs 18:17

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Here we are on day two. Let’s read Proverbs 18:17. You might wonder what this has to do with your mind or emotions. This has a principle in it that we have to remember when processing life and hard moments. It says when an argument is first given, we think one way, but when we hear the other side it often sways our thoughts about it. 

Have you ever heard the saying there are two sides to every story?

When you are presented with a hard situation, it’s important, after the initial shock, that you then begin to bring in some other views, opinions, and possibilities. You can ask questions like, “How big of a deal is the problem?  What’s the worst thing that can happen? In 2-3 years, how badly will this affect me? In light of that answer, how upset should I be? Have I asked God about it yet? Have I prayed about it? Who can I talk to to give me a better perspective? Is there a positive side to this? 

Challenge: Decide who your “perspective people” are. 

Going Deeper: Is there an area of your life that has you feeling overwhelmed? Write it down. 

Day 3

Read: Psalm 42 (yep, the whole thing)

What I want you to notice is that David, the writer of that poem, isn’t a stuffer. What’s that? He’s not someone who stuffs his emotions. He lets them out! He feels what He feels and he says how he feels! 

If you’re going to be healthy in your mind and emotions you need to do two things: 

1. Express how you feel and be honest. I feel mad. Sad. Embarrassed. Scared. Whatever it is. David doesn’t shy away from How feels. He tells God and lets it out. Now that doesn’t need to happen in front of everyone, but you need to find a time to express yourself. 

2. Bring it back around to the goodness of God. If you only get caught up in your feelings but never ground yourself in the goodness, faithfulness, and love of God, you’ll just be an emotional wreck! 

Look at these verses: 5, 8. Here’s how this can look for you. God, I hate that I have no friends at school. It makes me hate school and not want to get up in the morning. I wish I had at least one friend. I’m lonely and this is hard, BUT, thank you that you will never leave me. Thank you that you’re with me. You’re still good and I know this isn’t forever. Please send me a good friend at the right time! This can apply to any situation. It takes practice, but you can do it! 

Going Deeper:

What emotions do you have the hardest time expressing? 

How are you at picking the right time to express your emotions? 

Write out your emotional process with God. it should include honest feelings. What you wish things would be like. Praise God. Remind yourself of how God will help you. Prayer for what you are asking for. A reminder of trust in God. 

Day 4

Read: Philippians 4:4-8; 2 Corinthians 10:4,5

What I want to do is teach you some strategies to help your control your thoughts and run your emotions. Now I won’t lie to you, learning to control your thoughts and emotions takes practice, but if you do this it will set you up for better friendships, dating, test-taking, and athletic performance. It will take you through college and help you succeed in your career and family. If you have recurring thoughts of depression, anxiety, stress, and other negative emotions. You can live at a higher level than you are right now. So let’s talk about how to RUN your emotions. To help you remember it I’m going to use an acronym.

The acronym is short and sweet and is going to help you remember how to manage your thoughts and run your emotions and the word is RUN. R-U-N. RUN Stands for Recognize Unwrap and New. 

So first, let’s just say you are an axious thought. And anxious thoughts move fast. He/She gets out of bed and that thought just comes in. What if I fail my test? What if my boyfriend or girlfriend breaks up with me? What if I lose all my friends when we go to high school? What if my parents’ job moves us away and no one likes me at our new school?  And you have two choices. You can allow your thought to just wander through your head and make you depressed or you can Recognize that thing and run it.

R- Round it up- Have you ever been to the rodeo? One of my favorite events is steer roping. They sit on their horse and as soon as they see the steer run out they rope that thing, grab it and throw it on the ground. This is how it has to be with your thoughts. You have to be thinking about what you’re thinking about. When you recognize a thought going through your head that is negative or stressful, or causing emotional distress, you gotta be like that cowboy or cowgirl and go after it and round it up in your mind. Don’t let it just run around your mind, You’ve gotta mentally grab that thought and then you move on to U- Unwrap it. This is where you examine it and  start asking questions like: Is this a positive thought? Is this thought going to help me? Is this thought taking me somewhere that I want to go? Do I know all the facts about this or am I just basing this on how I feel? If I keep thinking like this where am I going to end up? Is this really as bad as it feels? Am I getting worried about something I don’t actually know will happen? 

Thinking about your thoughts like this allows you to affect something called neurons and dendrites in your mind that are formed when you have thoughts. Your mind has something called, ‘neural plasticity” which means your brain can change. Instead of your emotions having power over you, you begin to have power over them. So you capture that thought by stopping and going wait what am I thinking about? Then you unwrap it and compare it to Philippians 4:8 as you read. Is it good? Noble? TRUE? And tomorrow we will talk about the rest of it. 

Challenge: Today,  practice the discipline of thinking about what you’re thinking about. When you feel a strong emotion, ask yourself, what was I just thinking about? Make this a habit. 

Going Deeper: 

Would you say your thoughts are generally true according to the Bible and positive or negative? 

Sometimes we can like our negativity. We like to be moody, and it gets us extra attention. Be honest do you have a habit of overemphasizing your anxious or down feelings? 

Why do you think you do this? 

Write down an honest answer: Would you rather be anxious and depressed or free and joyful? 

Write down Philippians 4:8 and think about it this week. d

Day 5

​Read: Psalm 42:4-11

Ok here’s the last part of controlling your thoughts. And you have to remember that it’s important to control your thoughts because your thoughts control your emotions. Depression, anxiety, stress, embarrassment are byproducts of things we are thinking even if we don’t realize it. 

Once you have Rounded it up, and then you Unwrap it, then you replace it with a New thought. Now, this is my favorite part because this is where your life actually starts to change. This is fun because of the science behind it. When a thought comes into your mind, it’s not in a permanent state. You can actually get rid of the chemical composition of a thought by choosing to not to think about it. Literally by saying, “I choose not to think about that”. If it’s negative like, “I suck at school and I’ll never get good grades.” You can choose to say, “I’m not going to think that way.” And replace it with a New thought that lines up with scripture. We talked a little bit about this during Day 1. 

Many of you have been stuck in a pattern of negative thoughts causing you to be unhealthy emotionally and it’s going to take practice to learn how to think about what you’re thinking about. To Round up what you’re thinking about, Unwrap it and either get a new thought. 

Your thoughts are the igniters of emotions. And if you don’t run your emotions, your emotions will run you. If your emotions run you they can ruin your life. But, I don’t think that’s going to be the case for you. Every area of your life can begin to change for the better as you control your thoughts and emotions.

So I want to challenge you this week to think about what you’re thinking about. Are your thoughts leading you to be kind to yourself and kind to others?  And remember to Round it up, Unwrap, and then get a new one. You really can begin to have your best life today.

Challenge: pick a lie you know you’ve allowed to live in rent-free in your mind. Now use the RUN method to disable it and move forward. 

Going Deeper:

What’s the lie? 

Unwrap this lie. When did you start thinking this way? Why? 

New- What does the Bible say about this? 

Start replacing it with the truth! 

Day 6

Read: Isaiah 61:3; Philippians 4:4-6

Here we are on the last day and I want you to know that your desire for a healthy mind and emotions is worth the fight! Here are some negative and positive things that have the power to hold you captive or free you. 

Weak Mindsets:

Unforgiveness- Not forgiving yourself or others is a trap that will leave you a prisoner

Victim mentality- Thinking the world is against you, everyone’s life is better, and everything bad happens to you. 

Mis-identity- Giving yourself an identity that doesn’t line up with the Bible. ex. I’m just a sinner. I’m dumb. I’m a loser. 

Powerful Mindsets: 

I’m a child of God. I am more than a conqueror through Christ. God is with me! 

And one of the most powerful is gratitude! Telling God thank you, giving thanks, and giving God praise strengthen your mind and fight off the cloud of depression that tries to invade your mind!

Challenge: Every day for the next 7 days give thanks for 6 things when you wake up and before you go to sleep. 

Going Deeper: 

Write down the 6 things you’ll give thanks for. 

Read the following verses and write down how they impact your thought life. 

Proverbs 4:23; Matthew 12:33-34

You did it! 6 days to begin your journey to a healthy mind and emotions. Oh, you thought you were done? Nope. Learning to think healthy thoughts, capture your thoughts and manage your thoughts is a process that takes a while, but these keys will help you begin taking those steps! Put these into practice every day and watch what happens! 

Don't let this be the end of your journey with God though. Have you ever felt like something was missing? God wants you to be whole and you can start with this devotional.