Inherent Value

In her talk, Discovering the Divinity Within, President Rosemary M. Wixom said:

Our divine nature has nothing to do with our personal accomplishments, the status we achieve, the number of marathons we run, or our popularity and self-esteem. Our divine nature comes from God. It was established in an existence that preceded our birth and will continue on into eternity.

We were all born with that divine nature already within us. We each have inestimable value, if only because we have infinite potential value. This principle tells us that no matter how worthless we may sometimes feel, we have worth greater than we could imagine - not because we're amazingly righteous or because we've done incredible things, but because we are children of God.

There are some who might say "So what? I may be a child of God, but so is everyone else. Saying that everyone is special is another way of saying that nobody is."

But I'm not talking about being special. I'm talking about our inherent value as children of God. As a child of God, you have divine potential. And sure, that's nothing special compared to everyone else, but that's okay. In fact, it's wonderful. You belong to a family of people, some untold trillions strong, who all have the potential to become like God. With your brothers and sisters, you can rise to the height of divinity and achieve the ultimate goal of moral perfection. Some of us might reach that potential sooner or later than others. Some of us won't reach that potential at all. But whether or not you grow into the divinity within you is not at all affected by whether or not others do, and your glory will not be diminished by other peoples' glories being just as great or even greater. I've heard it said that one flower doesn't compare itself to another - it just blooms.

Sister Wixom said, "We come to this earth to nurture and discover the seeds of divine nature that are within us," and that's something we all can do. The more people nurture the seeds of divinity within them, the bigger the garden will be. And no individual flower will be any less beautiful by being part of the biggest, most beautiful garden that ever existed. Our inherent value may not make us any better than anybody else, but it makes us all priceless.