He Loves You Because of You and He Needs You

(Be warned, this one is rather lengthy.)

Thinking about divine nature always reminds me of these lyrics, which I imagine would be how the Savior feels about us whenever we feel down.  “The greatest gift I could give to you, is if you could see yourself the way I do.”

image taken from http://findingstrengthwithin.blogspot.com/

We have so much potential to grow and become better.  At this current moment, our souls are filled with sorrows, our bodies with weaknesses, and at times, our lives can be filled with sin.  But we have the potential to become better, no matter what state we are currently in.  Not only in this life, but the gospel teaches us that we also have potential in the next life to become like Gods if we endure the trials and challenges of this life and remain true to the truths of the gospel.

“There is something of divinity within each of you.  You have such tremendous potential with that quality as part of your inherited nature.  Every one of you was endowed by your Father in Heaven with a tremendous capacity to do good in the world.” (Gordon B. Hinckley)

Heavenly Father knows us- we were with Him before we came to Earth, He is with us now, and, if we live faithfully, we will live with Him in the eternities.  He knows us even better than we know ourselves, because He knows what we have the potential to become.  Because he knows us so well, he has catered a plan, specific and individual to each of us, that will help us to realize who we are and to become the person He knows we can be.

image taken from http://www.ldsliberty.org/the-moral-question-of-government/pre-mortal-life-5/

Stop for a moment and think about who you are right now.  Think about the relationships you have, where you live.  What are the experiences that led you there?  Without just one of those experiences, would you be where you are now?  How can we deny that those experiences were not crafted and put into our lives by a loving Father who is helping us to reach our divine potential?

Image from pinterest

Individual Worth, to me, has always meant the statement that everyone is important to God.  But this blanket statement is not personal, and defeats the purpose of individual worth. 

You are important and have infinite worth to our Father in Heaven because of who you are and the potential you have.  You bring to the table a unique combination of experiences and ideas and traits that make up your irreplaceable character which no one else can bring.  No one else can ever take your spot, and that’s why you’re important. 

Dieter F. Uchtdorf shared a story about a couple living in Utah: Every week, the man, while he was at work, would pull out his scriptures or other Church literature during lunch and read.  His coworkers would ridicule him and challenge his beliefs every day.  Nevertheless, he smiled and spoke to them with kindness and confidence.  Years later, one of the men who had mocked him asked the man to speak at his funeral, which he did.  His influence was known and felt by all who came into contact with him, even those who mocked him.  His wife, widowed after an industrial accident, underwent brain surgery, leaving her unable to walk or write.  People love coming to spend time with this dear sister because she listens and remembers.  “She never complains but spends her days blessing the lives of others … This couple would have been the first to say they were not much of importance in this world.  But the Lord uses a scale very different from the World’s to weigh the worth of a soul.  He knows this faithful couple; He loves them.”

Psalms 8:3-6 says:

“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.  Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:”

This scripture brings us to the interesting paradox of man.  The Lord created the universe; he created worlds without end and compared to Him, man is nothing.  We literally are mortal beings who live on a small planet and live for only a brief moment in the grand expanse of the universe.  But we matter to him- thus creating the paradox.  WHY?  Why does he care about us so much?  Why has he given us so much?  He created this universe just for us so that we could grow and become immortal beings ourselves.  Dieter F. Uchtdorf gives us this answer- “God sees you not only as a mortal being on a small planet who lives for a brief season—He sees you as His child.  He sees you as the being you are capable and designed to become.” 

Using our knowledge about divine nature, we can more fully understand our individual worth.  For illustrative purposes, I’m calling this Divine Worth- the sandwich of Divine Nature and Individual Worth.

To the world, your worth is determined by how big your house is, how updated you are in technological advances, how many people you sleep with, how many countries you’ve been to, how many gold medals you have, or how ‘ideal’ your figure is.  Worldly worth is a process of comparison between yourself and somebody else- there are all kinds of examples of this in rankings of team players, lists of most attractive people, and even in calculating one player’s odds of winning over another’s.   “A person’s true value has little to do with what the world holds in high esteem … The Lord uses a scale very different from the World’s to weigh the worth of a soul” (Dieter F. Uchtdorf).  The Lord’s scale is not based on class rankings, or where we live, or even what our calling in the church is.  The Lord’s scale is based off of who we are and who we have the potential to become.  It’s our divine nature that helps us understand our individual worth.

In preparing this talk, a song I learned when I was young kept returning to my mind called Every Star is Different.  “Every star is different and so is every child- some are bright and happy, and some are meek and mild.  Every one is needed for just what he can do; you’re the only person who ever can be you.”  This first verse teaches us that every single one of us is different- we each have different experiences, different ideas, and different characteristics that combine in a unique way to make us who we are.  None of us is exactly the same; even those who go through life together and have the same physical experiences will not have the same perceptions or thoughts and thus create different people.  Because of this uniqueness, we are, as the song said, the only person who can be who we are.  This makes each and every single one of us needed in some way or another by our Father in Heaven- we each have a divine mission to fulfill on this Earth and we are the only ones who can do it.  Because of our individual worth, our unique experiences and ideas that create our own distinctive characteristics- no one else can complete our responsibilities in the same way that we can.  They also cannot grow in the same way we will after going through an experience. 

He loves us because of us- who we are and who we will become.  Our individual worth is because of our divine nature.  These two values are infinitely connected and each one helps us to understand the other.  Yes, the Lord cares about us and loves us.  But He doesn’t base that love off of how well we did on our finals, how many dates we went on last week, or even where we work.  “What matter[s] to Him [is] that [we’re] doing the best [we can], that [our] heart[s] [are] inclined toward Him, and that [we are] willing to help those around [us]… God knows that some of the greatest souls who have ever lived are those who will never appear in the chronicles of history.”  (Uchtdorf)

Let us continue on in doing everything we can to reach our divine potential; let us look at others through the eyes of the Lord; and let us remember that we matter to Him.  

(images taken from www.lds.org unless otherwise noted.)