The Worth of Souls

Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this."

He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up. He then asked, "Who still wants it?"

"Well," he replied, "what if I do this?" He dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. "Now who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air.

"My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value in God's eyes. To Him, dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to Him."

One of the greatest weaknesses in most of us is our lack of faith in ourselves. One of our common failings is to depreciate our tremendous worth.

"The values of faith in God and virtuous behavior... are often rejected by many as worthless. This is a route destined to failure because it does not take into account the powerful importance of the subjective things we can know but not measure. For instance, I love my wife and family, and I feel their love for me. You cannot measure how deep our feelings of love are for each other, but that love is very real to us. Pain is also difficult to measure, but it is real. The same is true of faith in God. We can know of His existence without being able to quantitatively measure it. Paul states, The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God' [Romans 8:16]."

"A shallow self-image is not [improved] by always letting others establish our standards and by habitually succumbing to peer pressure. Young people too often depend upon someone else's image rather than their own."

"A wise teacher and stake Relief Society president... flashed a 1arge picture on a screen. It showed a bright-eyed boy with unkempt hair and folded arms, deep in thought. The caption read, 'I know I'm somebody 'cause God don't make no junk.' Please let me repeat, 'I know I'm somebody 'cause God don't make no junk.'...

"Every human being in every walk of life needs help in building his self-respect and self-reliance.... A person's image of himself is nothing more or less than what he has learned through his experiences and his interactions with others. It is rewarding to note that someone has helped a typical boy develop his personal identity. Someone, perhaps a mother, a Primary teacher, a neighbor, or even a song like 'I Am a Child of God,' has made this little boy realize he is someone. He knew he wasn't junk. He knew he wasn't impossible. He knew he was a human being loved by his Heavenly Father."