Bestselling author Jennie Allen recently released her first children’s book, titled “What to Do With Your Whirly, Swirly Thoughts.”
In addition to writing books, Allen is a wife, mother of four, Bible teacher, and the founder and visionary behind both IF:Gathering and Gather25.
“I wrote a book called ‘Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts‘ that has done really well and has helped a lot of people,” Allen told ChurchLeaders.
The book was released right before the pandemic hit.
“I’m really grateful for just the timing of that subject matter,” said Allen. “So what I knew almost immediately was we’ve got to do things for kids.”
In fact, she explained, “I wrote this right after ‘Get Out of Your Head’ came out, several years ago, and it’s just been sitting on my shelf waiting to get brought into the world, because I just saw so many kids struggling.” Allen shared that even “my own kids were struggling, and I hadn’t learned that I had power over my thoughts until I was an adult.”
Allen said that the first time she realized she had such power was in college. “It occurred to me I was in college, or just post-college, and then I really didn’t learn the things I’m teaching in this kid’s book until I was in my 30s,” she said.
“I just felt like there’s no reason kids can’t know this. We just need to say it. We just need to teach them,” Allen said. “They have control over their thoughts, and they have the ability to interrupt the spirals that we get in. Anxiety is rampant, everybody knows that.”
Acknowledging the statistics on anxiety, Allen said, “[Children are] absolutely [discouraged] and despairing. But we have more authority than we think.”
“Certainly we need help with doctors sometimes and counselors,” she clarified. “Praise God for them. But just knowing that you have authority over your thought life really can begin to change the way you think.”
