30 Days to Taming Your Emotions: Discover the Calm, Confident, Caring You

227 Pages·2012·1.19 MB·English

by  Deborah Smith Pegues

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE, OREGON
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Cover by Koechel Peterson & Associates, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota
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30 DAYS TO TAMING YOUR EMOTIONS
Copyright © 2012 by Deborah Smith Pegues
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97402
www.harvesthousepublishers.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pegues, Deborah Smith, 1950—
30 days to taming your emotions / Deborah Smith Pegues.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-7369-4825-8 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-7369-4826-5 (eBook)
1. Emotions—Religious aspects—Christianity. 2. Self-control—Religious aspects—Christianity. I.
Title. II. Title: Thirty days to taming your emotions.
BV4597.3.P44 2012
248.4—dc23
2011036484
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any
other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 / BP-NI / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to all my faithful readers. Your
passion for learning and applying the Word to your
lives inspires me to seek higher heights and deeper
depths in God. Thank you for the motivation.
Contents
Introduction
Day 1 Building a Firm Foundation
Day 2 Managing Your Body
Day 3 A Job Half Done
Day 4 Arresting Anger
Day 5 Managing Your Sanity
Day 6 Bending Without Breaking
Day 7 Leaving the Past
Day 8 Exiting the Fast Lane
Day 9 Good Enough
Day 10 The Act of Acceptance
Day 11 Fighting God’s Way
Day 12 Better Together
Day 13 Clarifying Expectations
Day 14 Taming Tension
Day 15 Sharing the Power
Day 16 Embracing Others
Day 17 Stinking Thinking
Day 18 The Power of Contentment
Day 19 Jealousy
Day 20 The Power of a Positive Perspective
Day 21 Stress Less
Day 22 Poisonous Attitudes
Day 23 Envy
Day 24 People-Pleasing
Day 25 Perfectionism
Day 26 The Values-Driven Life
Day 27 The Pursuit of Peace
Day 28 A Forward Focus
Day 29 Pressing Toward the Mark
Day 30 Embracing the Good Life
Epilogue
About the Author
About the Publisher
Introduction
Julie was overwhelmed with debilitating emotions. Management seemed to
have overlooked a host of more qualified junior executives and asked her to
present a proposal to one of the company’s most important clients. She’d
convinced herself that flubbing this opportunity could spell the death of her
career. Such an assumption caused her already sagging confidence to dip even
lower. She was on edge and snapped at everyone who had gotten in her way the
morning of the presentation. By the time she reached the boardroom where the
meeting was to be held, her entire attitude reeked of negativity. Needless to say,
her performance did not prove to be her finest hour. Her emotions had controlled
her every move.
Emotions are the locomotive in our lives. Every decision we make is driven
by a positive or negative emotion. In fact, the root meaning of the word emotion
is “to move.” Unfortunately, most people are moved primarily by their negative
emotions. There are over 3,000 words in the language that describe our
negativity. With such a vast array of options, I have chosen in the following
pages to limit our focus to three common negative emotions that plague the
masses: insecurity, stress, and damaging attitudes. Each of these is often a state
of the mind that can derail your destiny and diminish your quality of life. But
here’s the good news: You don’t have to be at the mercy of your emotions.
This book will show you how to recognize and confront your emotions and
bring them into focus. No, I will not attempt to turn you into a clone of Mr.
Spock, the emotionless Vulcan in the Star Trek television series. Emotions come
with being human; controlling them comes with being born of the Spirit and
giving Him free rein in our lives.
Throughout the following pages I want to challenge you to keep an open
mind and be willing to change. Learning specialist Dr. Caroline Leaf says,
“Behavior starts with a thought. Thoughts stimulate emotions which then result
in attitude and finally produce behavior. Toxic thoughts produce toxic emotions,
which produce toxic attitudes, resulting in toxic behaviors.” Thoughts.
Emotions. Attitude. Behavior. Yes, we can control every step of the process.
Let’s get started!