A Potent Antidepressant — Dallin H. Oaks

A Way of Life, Dallin H. Oaks

Excerpt from Dallin H. Oaks General Conference Address, October 1995.

“Consider the power of the idea taught in our beloved song ‘I Am a Child of God.’ … Here is the answer to one of life’s great questions, ‘Who am I?’ I am a child of God with a spirit lineage to heavenly parents. That parentage defines our eternal potential. That powerful idea is a potent antidepressant. It can strengthen each of us to make righteous choices and to seek the best that is within us. Establish in the mind of a … person the powerful idea that he or she is a child of God, and you have given self-respect and motivation to move against the problems of life”

Dallin H. Oaks is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Prior to full-time church service he was a professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School, interim dean of that law school, president of Brigham Young University, and a justice of the Utah Supreme Court. Two U.S. presidents considered nominating him to the United States Supreme Court.