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A Simple Remedy for Depression

The late William L. Stidger, a famous minister and teacher, once had a nervous breakdown. He was enclosed in gloom and depression, caring for nothing. In the midst of his despair, a friend suggested, "Think of those who have benefited you in life and ask yourself if you have ever thanked them." Stidger responded that many people had helped him, but he could not recall ever having thanked one of them. Stidger's friend encouraged him to write some helpful person a letter of thanks.

After giving it some thought, Stidger remembered a teacher named Miss Smith,
who had given him a love for literature. He wrote Miss Smith and expressed his appreciation for her influence in his life.

Soon he received a letter in shaky handwriting: "Dear Willy, I remembered you as a little fellow in my class. You have warmed my old heart. I have taught school for fifty years. Yours is the first letter of thanks I ever received from a student, and I shall cherish it until I die."

This response so encouraged Stidger that he wrote another letter and another. After five hundred letters, he stopped. He was no longer downcast.  All of us have benefited from a host of people—parents, teachers, schoolmates, friends, preachers, fellow Christians. Are you in the dumps, feeling sorry for yourself? Pick up a pen and write a letter. Go dial the number of a friend. Express thanks!

—Chris Smith

"In everything give thanks." —1 Thessalonians 5:18
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Jefferson"s Bible:  One Page Short, part 1
Allen Webster
Glad Tidings of Good Things
Volume 15, Ferbruary 26