Dallas, TX

Bestselling Dallas-area author on what the church needs to learn about teaching emotions

Published

2 years ago

February 16, 2024

Bestselling Dallas-area author on what the church needs to learn about teaching emotions

New York Times bestselling author and Dallas-area resident Jennie Allen, whose latest book was published this week, has been teaching the Bible since she was 17. “I met Jesus, and I literally just fell in love with him,” she said. “I had to talk about it; I was annoying all my friends.”

Allen started a Bible study with girls from her high school, and they met in her family’s living room to study the Book of Revelation. “It sounded interesting to me as a 17-year-old. I didn’t know how complicated it was,” she said of the famously-difficult book.

Her reach has since grown considerably. She has an active social media presence, with over 175,000 followers on Facebook and over 400,000 on Instagram. She also founded and leads an annual conference for Christian women called IF: Gathering, which will hold its 10th edition Feb. 23-24 at Fort Worth’s Dickies Arena. Last year, the conference had 50,000 in-person and virtual attendees and its livestream was viewed over 600,000 times in 129 countries, Allen’s press team said.

Allen’s 2020 book Get Out Of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts has sold over 1 million copies and spent 36 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, according to her press team. Her new book Untangle Your Emotions: Naming What You Feel and Knowing What to Do About It has made Amazon’s best-seller list. To promote the book, she appeared Thursday on the Today show.

Allen, 47, said her big break came in 2010, when she was offered a deal to write two books and seven Bible studies by a Christian publisher. “I had no platform whatsoever,” Allen said. “I didn’t deserve that.”

She has since written books on topics including mental health and faith. Her most recent one, she said, reflects a change in how she views emotions. It was informed by lessons she’s learned since the pandemic, when she met with a small group of friends and a counselor over Zoom. “We came together to carry each other’s heavy stuff,” she said.

The counselor helped Allen and her friends learn how to listen to one another’s feelings without shaming or judging emotions she said they’d otherwise see as “negative.” “They showed me that, when they spoke to my emotion with their emotion, instead of trying to fix me, I felt seen and safe and comforted,” Allen said of the group.

In her new book, she shares the lessons she learned, drawing on insights from the Bible and modern psychology. As she wrote, Allen read books from psychologists including Chip Dodd and Lisa Feldman Barrett.

In all her work, Allen said, she aims to share the “last 2%” of her life that even other vulnerable people might hold back. In Untangle Your Emotions, she talks about her husband’s experience with depression and her own anxiety around her children moving far from home. “I think why that’s embarrassing is it feels like a controlling, crazy mom,” she said of sharing her experience.

But it was important to do so, she said. “The Bible says ‘mourn with those who mourn,’ because our brain is meant to heal as we share the hard things.”

Part of her journey with emotions has involved shifting her perspective on parenting, Allen explained. “Once I got comfortable with ‘negative’ emotions, or uncomfortable emotions, I could sit with other people in them. My kids found me to be a much safer place.

“The most beautiful moments of parenting — for me, it’s been apologizing. And just saying I’d like to do this better, and I’m sorry that I didn’t.”

Allen hopes the thinking that transformed her parenting can help change the way the church teaches about emotions. “We don’t have a good theology of emotions,” she said. “We tend to make people feel guilty for being emotional or having emotions, when what a difficult emotion needs is comfort.”

Allen has a vision for the church that looks different. Citing Romans 8:1 — “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ” — she said it “means that we should be the safest place to struggle, to feel fear or anger or sadness. I do believe we have that potential.”

Joy Ashford covers faith and religion in North Texas for The Dallas Morning News through a partnership with Report for America.

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Dallas, TX

Anti-ICE protest outside Dallas City Hall follows deadly shooting in Minneapolis

Published

1 hour ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Anti-ICE protest outside Dallas City Hall follows deadly shooting in Minneapolis – CBS Texas

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This protest was organized by the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

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Dallas, TX

Dallas Weather: Changes on the way for North Texas

Published

13 hours ago

January 8, 2026

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Dallas Weather: Changes on the way for North Texas

DALLAS – The warm and muggy weather will give way to much cooler temperatures in the Dallas-Fort Worth area over the next few days.

Thursday Forecast

According to the FOX 4 Weather team, rain chances return on Thursday as a disturbance moves through the Plains.

The best chance for showers and storms will be north of Interstate 20. There’s a marginal risk for severe storms for the areas northwest of DFW and along the Red River.

A southwest wind will also keep things very warm throughout the day. Expect highs to climb into the upper 70s to 80s. Wind gusts may reach as high as 25 to 30 mph.

Weekend Forecast

The next cold front swings through on Friday afternoon. Ahead of it, there are rain chances, especially southeast of DFW.

Behind this front, noticeably colder air moves in for the weekend. Expect lows in the 30s and afternoon highs in the 50s.

7-Day Forecast

A slow warm-up is expected heading into early next week.

The Source: The information in this story comes from FOX 4 Weather Meteorologist Ali Turiano’s weather report.

Weather

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Dallas, TX

Live updates: Washington Capitals vs Dallas Stars at Capital One Arena

Published

1 day ago

January 7, 2026

Press Room

Live updates: Washington Capitals vs Dallas Stars at Capital One Arena

Justin Sourdif gave Capitals fans one of the most fun individual efforts of the season, recording five points and scoring his first career hat trick against the Anaheim Ducks on Monday. Sourdif had fantastic chemistry with Connor McMichael and Ryan Leonard in their first game together.

Now the question becomes – Can the Young Guns 2.0 keep it up against a usually-stingy, defensively stout Dallas Stars team?

With Tom Wilson and Aliaksei Protas out again due to injury, Brett Leason will make his season debut with the Capitals. Meanwhile, Dylan McIlrath will remain in the lineup.

The Stars come into on a six-game losing streak. Casey DeSmith will start in goal over Jake Oettinger while the Capitals will counter with Logan Thompson.

Puck drop for today’s game is scheduled for a little after 7:00 pm. The game’s national and on TNT.

I’m dedicating my work tonight to Callie. I love you, my sweet girl. 💔

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More Info

Lines

Washington Capitals

Beauvillier

Strome

Ovechkin

McMichael

Sourdif

Leonard

Dallas Stars

Duchene

Johnston

Rantanen

Tunnel shenanigans

1st Period

Puck is dropped. McMichael-Sourdif-Leonard and Fehervary-Carlson get the start.

Hendrix Lapierre passing directly to a Stars forward in the slot on his first shift of the game is probably not a good sign for his ice time tonight.
— RMNB (@rmnb) January 8, 2026

Ilya Lyubushkin to the box for holding Jakob Chychrun at 2:44.

Stars’ Radek Faska goes 1 on 3 shorthanded and scores after Logan Thompson loses sight of a rebound. WHAT WAS THAT.

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1-0 Dallas Stars

SHG: Radek Faksa (2). Assists: E. Lindell (14). Time: 3:06

Back to the power play and… Justin Sourdif gets tossed from the faceoff dot, starts screaming at the official, Connor McMichael comes in, says something, and he gets an unsportsmanlike doncut penalty, killing the rest of the team’s power play. You can tell Carbery is fuming.

The two teams are now playing four-on-four.

Puck bounces over Dylan Strome’s stick on a wide-open net down low after a great setup by John Carlson.

Stars are outshooting the Capitals 5-0, 5:30 into the first period.

Apparently Beck Malenstyn has returned to the Capitals because one of the commentators said he just made a play. Lmao. No one on the Capitals even wears no. 47.

Sam Steel ailing and holding his left arm after a big hit by Ethen Frank.

At intermission: The Stars lead 1-0. The Caps didn’t really do anything in the first period. They were there. They existed. But that was about it. Shots on goal are 10-8 Dallas.

2nd Period

Puck is dropped.

Ilya Lyubushkin and Brandon Duhaime throwing punches at each other after the play at 1:12. Lyubushkin is going down the tunnel due to a cut on his nose.

John Carlson… just watching a pass through the paint to his man, no stick lift or anything, just chillin.

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2-0 Dallas Stars

Goal: Sam Steel (7). Assists: T. Harley (14), M. Duchene (6). Time: 2:37

Ryan Leonard fakes a dump-in and almost scores with a crazy shot to the far side from center ice.

Brandon Duhaime and Ilya Lyubushkin drop the gloves right off a faceoff at 12:53. Duhaime punches Lyubushkin about 5 times hard in the back of the helmet. Hope his knuckles are doing okay. The Caps crowd is finally into it, though.

Logan Thompson stops Roope Hintz on a two-on-none breakaway after Nic Dowd fails to get the puck deep. Caps look awful.

Mikko Rantanen slashes Justin Sourdif at 15:55. Caps going back to the power play.

At intermission: The Stars lead 2-0. Dallas leads in shots on goal 20 to 13.

3rd Period

Puck is dropped.

Anthony Beauvillier takes it hard to the net, and gets two opportunities but can’t whack the puck through.

Nic Dowd to the box for hooking at 4:57. The Caps look awful. Just listless. Can’t get anything going. A lot of standing around.

4 shots by the Stars on the power play. Thompson keeping the Caps close.

McMichael ices the puck at the end of the kill.

Caps have one shot on goal through the first 7:03 of the third period.

Jason Robertson rips one hard off the post. Thompson is flopping all over the place to keep the puck out.

McMichael and Duchene trade opportunities down the wing off the rush.

Beauvillier sends a horrible pass backwards to Matt Roy in the defensive zone, turnover to the Stars’ Steel, and Wyatt Johnston scores easily in front of the net. YIKES.

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