Topics:<\/b> Blessings; Gratitude; Old Age; Thanksgiving<\/p>\n
References:<\/b> Deuteronomy 8:10; Psalm 100:4<\/p>\n
During the Depression, William Stidger was in a restaurant with friends who were all talking about how terrible things were: suffering people, rich people committing suicide, joblessness. The conversation got more miserable as it went on.<\/p>\n
A minister in the group interrupted. \u201cIn two or three weeks I have to preach a sermon on Thanksgiving Day,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat can I say that\u2019s affirmative in a period of world depression like this?\u201d<\/p>\n
Stidger felt the Spirit of God saying to him, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you give thanks to those people who have been a blessing in your life and affirm them during this terrible time?\u201d<\/p>\n
He began to think about that. He remembered a schoolteacher who was very dear to him, a wonderful teacher of poetry and English literature who had gone out of her way to put a great love of literature and verse in him, which has affected all his writings and his preaching. So he sat down and wrote a letter to this woman, now up in years. It was only a matter of days until he got a reply in the feeble scrawl of the aged:<\/p>\n
My dear Willy,<\/i><\/p>\n
I can\u2019t tell you how much your note meant to me. I am in my 80s, living alone in a small room, cooking my own meals, lonely, and like the last leaf of autumn lingering behind. You\u2019ll be interested to know that I taught in school for more than fifty years, and yours is the first note of appreciation I ever received. It came on a blue, cold morning, and it cheered me as nothing has done in many years.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sentimental, but I found myself weeping over that note,\u201d Stidger said. Then he thought of a kind bishop, now retired, who had recently faced the death of his wife and was all alone. This bishop had taken a lot of time giving Stidger advice and counsel and love when he first began his ministry. So he sat down and wrote the old bishop. In two days a reply came back.<\/p>\n
My dear Will,<\/i><\/p>\n
Your letter was so beautiful, so real, that as I sat reading it in my study, tears of gratitude fell from my eyes. Before I realized what I was doing, I rose from my chair and I called my wife\u2019s name to share it with her, forgetting she was gone. You\u2019ll never know how much your letter has warmed my spirit. I have been walking around in the glow of your letter all day long.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u2014David A. Seamands, \u201cInstruction for Thanksgiving,\u201d Preaching Today Audio, no. 62<\/p>\n
PART 32: TEMPTATION<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Topics: Blessings; Gratitude; Old Age; Thanksgiving References: Deuteronomy 8:10; Psalm 100:4 During the Depression, William Stidger was in a restaurant with friends who were all talking about how terrible things were: suffering people, rich people committing suicide, joblessness. The conversation got more miserable as it went on. A minister in the group interrupted. \u201cIn two … Continue reading “THANKS
\n IN HARD TIMES”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}