I had one of THOSE days recently.

It started out just fine. I woke up early and checked my fasting blood glucose. It was 94! Totally normal! I stepped on the scales. I had lost 35 pounds in the past five months! I was well on my way to defeating my diabetes through diet and exercise! I drank my morning protein drink and then climbed onto my stationary bike for my daily 30 minutes of aerobic exercise.

I went to work that morning with a very positive attitude. Things looked great! I was having a wonderful day. Until!

I’m sure you can fill in the blank. I could tell you one of any number of a dozen things happened. For instance, I might have gotten a subpoena demanding I appear in court to testify in a malpractice trial the next day! Or, I might have gotten the news that a dear friend of mine had passed away! Or, I might have learned that my daughter had another seizure and fell, hitting her head and sustaining a basilar skull fracture! Or, I might have talked to a relative or friend who asked me to review an imaging study only to realize they had cancer and even though I was not their doctor, I would be the one to tell them!

I can assure you each and every one of these events has happened to me in the past. And, there were more. Here’s my point. Every good day can start out rosy and fantastic. But, all it takes is one downturn to sour our emotional state.

You see, our emotions change constantly. This is natural. This is inevitable. It is the cyclical nature of our human existence that not all moments of life are great and uplifting. Bad things are going to happen. And, when bad things happen, we MUST NOT act on these temporary emotions! They are temporary. They can be overcome. With the proper plan and action, depression can be defeated. Mark and I wrote an entire book about this based on our own personal experience.

What I would like to share with our readers today is the plan I have made to deal with these situations.

1 -- Always wait at least 72 hours before acting on those emotions. Time and time again, things will and do get better. Depression comes and goes just as our emotions can go up and down. The important lesson to learn is to make it a standard action to ALWAYS hesitate and wait before acting negatively to those downward tugging emotions.

Don’t send that text! Don’t answer that email! And, don’t, for a second thing all is lost forever and consider ending your life. Give it time! Be patient! Be still and listen for the still, small voice of God.

2 -- Make you a sign reminding you to wait before acting on your current emotional state. Heres your sign!

I put sticky notes on my bathroom mirror. I even created these little things called LifeFilters. My original purpose was to have a card I would carry every day in my pocket and when things got bad, instead of throwing a pity party or giving in to fatal emotions, I would, instead take out the card and read both sides. On one side was an affirming thought based on the Bible verse on the other side of the card. As Mark has said over and over again, our emotions change, but the Word of God does not!

I’ll finish my list tomorrow. For now, stop and consider if you are using a daily dose of God’s Word to offset your negative emotions.