Author Jennie Allen Says ‘We Need God’ to Face Negative Emotions
By Movieguide® Contributor
Candace Cameron Bure and author Jennie Allen explain why emotional moments are “opportunities to trust God more.”
“Everybody’s emotional because we’re built in the image of God,” Allen said during an appearance on “The Candace Cameron Bure Podcast.” “God’s way is to notice the emotion, to name the emotion, to feel the emotion, because these are gifts that God’s given us, and we’re supposed to feel them and then to share them with people, especially if they’re significant.
She and Bure talked about the anxieties people can have about showing negative emotions, like anger or sadness, and why they should express those feelings anyway.
“When we’re wrong, when other people wrong us, the potential for more intimacy is on the other side of that,” Allen explained.
She added that negative feelings are “why a lot of people will just decide not to feel, because emotions have hurt them from other people, and they have hurt people with emotions. And I would say that these are opportunities to trust God more. That’s what those emotions are, and these are opportunities to need the gospel.”
“We need God to help with anxiety,” Allen concluded. “We need God to help with our rage. We need God to help with our fear about the world and the future. We need God to help with our depression. We need God. And there are not more beautiful words to Him than that.”
Movieguide® previously reported on Allen and Bure’s conversations about the importance of embracing your emotions:
Candace Cameron Bure and author Jennie Allen are reminding us that emotions are an important part of our relationship with God.
“I think one of the real, hardest parts about sharing…is just because that is such an important part of emotions. They are God-given, they are built,” Allen said during a recent episode of “The Candace Cameron Bure Podcast.” “The reason emotions are so important is because they connect you to people. They connect you to Him.”
Allen replied, “I think there’s a lot of people listening that would say, ‘I don’t do that. I don’t go to God first because I feel like He’s judging my emotion or I feel like He’s not safe’…I’m someone who just feels really safe with God.”
She explained that, like David’s conversations with God in the Psalms, she isn’t afraid to “let Him have it.”
“If we really view God as a relational God and Him wanting a relationship with us, those are the best relationships,” Allen concluded.
Allen’s most recent book, “Untangle Your Emotions: Naming What You Feel And Knowing What To Do About It,” explores the complicated ways many people feel about their own emotions.
“Feelings aren’t meant to be fixed. Feelings are meant to be felt,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “God designed all of your emotions as gifts to help us navigate a wild world and to connect us with Him and each other. I know…we’ve often acted out of them in unhealthy ways, and so we’ve demonized them and not known what to do with them. So let’s find a new way.”
In an interview with Publisher’s Weekly, Allen shared her upcoming plans for more books.
“I’m going to do more books for children, including one on emotions,” she shared. “And I’m already writing my next book for adults. It’s called ‘God Likes You.’ Too many people think God is angry or disappointed with them. He may not like everything we do or always approve, but I know a God, personally and from the Bible, who has great affection for me and for all the people he has created. We may do things he is not happy about, but he loves us and has a plan for us.”
