Worth and Worthiness

In her talk, Value Beyond Measure, Sister Joy D. Jones taught that there is a critical difference between the words worth and worthiness. She reminded us that our spiritual worth is based on our Heavenly Father's love for us. Thus, our worth, in His eyes, is infinite, and nothing can change that. Our worthiness, however, is based on our behavior, and is much easier to change. Sister Jones offered us this encouraging, yet sobering reminder: "If we sin, we are less worthy, but we are never worth less!"

Sin does not decrease our spiritual worth, but it does decrease our worthiness. This loss in worthiness often results in a loss of blessings, and some people, including the adversary, would have us take that as evidence that God loves sinners less than He loves the righteous. However, Sister Jones testified that God loves all His children, regardless of their behavior or worthiness: "No matter what, we always have worth in the eyes of our Heavenly Father."

Yet, that doesn't give us a free pass to commit sin, trusting that God's love alone will redeem us from it. We must choose which path we follow and which destination we reach. To gain the greatest blessings God offers us, we must strive for a worthiness that matches our spiritual worth. Like any good parent, God rewards His children for goo behavior, and He trusts with responsibility only those who have proven worthy of that trust.

God will always love us, but He will not always bless us. God's love does not have to be earned, but His blessings do. Nothing we ever say or do will ever affect the amount of love God has for us, but it may affect the amount of blessings we receive from Him.

But being unworthy and less-blessed does not mean that God loves us any less. His love is infinite and unchangeable, as is our spiritual worth. God will never stop loving us or stop wanting to bless us, so He will never stop urging us to repent and prove worthy of the blessings He wants to give us. We must try to be worthy so God can give us blessings equal to the worth He sees in us.