Hello teens, hello young people.
One thing I’ve learned recently is the importance of our emotional state when we go to sleep.
Where you are emotionally at bedtime matters, because your emotional state is the atmosphere you carry into sleep. This is especially important right before you close your eyes. I’ll explain why later. But first, remember this: God is a Counsellor.
Jesus Christ is a Counsellor — a literal Therapist, the Counsellor of counsellors. And the Holy Spirit is Therapist par excellence. This matters because our emotions reveal how the day has affected us: difficult situations, harsh adults, pressure from peers, school stress, tiredness, brain fog, transportation problems, and everything in between. We all go through these things, and our emotions take the hit.
By the end of the day most of us are in many emotional places at once, sometimes battered.
What is of utmost importance is gathering ourselves into one whole piece before sleep. The best and most consistent way I’ve found is journaling with Jesus and the Holy Spirit before bed.
It’s like a mental clearing.
Unpack the events of the day into your journal:
This happened.
That happened.
I felt this because of that.
Reflect honestly. Write the significant moments: the feelings, the offences, the jealousy, the disappointments. It’s your journal — no one is watching. You can write plainly or even in shorthand. The goal is to get everything out of your mind and onto the page. That is stage one: mental decluttering.
Stage two: sit with God and the Holy Spirit and begin to sort through what you’ve written.
Thank Him for the good.
Ask for grace for the challenges you still have to face tomorrow.
Bring to Him the things that hurt you or offended you.
Ask Him to help you understand why people acted the way they did:
What was the intention?
Why did they behave like this?
Show me their heart.
The Holy Spirit is the greatest Counsellor. He will show you what is really happening. And if someone truly wronged you, ask God — the most just Judge — for justice. He is never careless, never forgetful, never sluggish. Nothing gets lost in His hands.
He is just. Which means he is fair, always. There is no other way he can be.
God’s justice restores. He can restore you so deeply that it feels like the hurt never happened. You wake up unburdened, free, and able to face the next day without heaviness. And when you see that person again, you face them with wisdom, awareness, and compassion.
You also learn how to pray for them, because you understand their inner battles. Compassion is essential — people who are hurting often pass their hurt to others. Life gives everyone lemons, but not everyone knows how to turn them into lemonade. Some pass on the bitterness instead of being healed.
Understanding this helps you pray for them with love.
Ask God every night to declutter you emotionally. Ask Him to return you to steady states — spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. Keep your heart healthy, clean, and reset before sleep.
Go to bed hopeful.
Go to bed joyful.
Go to bed with inspiration and expectation for tomorrow.
Make a simple plan for the next day and sleep while incubating hope, not nursing hurts. Tomorrow is birthed in the night, so enter sleep with purpose, not pain.
Sleep dreaming of what God will do — not replaying what others did to you.
I love you.
Take care.
