John Bytheway, a part-time religious education instructor at the BYU Salt Lake Center and co-host of the followHim podcast, spoke to the youth on how they are worthy of Jesus Christ's love.
Youth and adults packed the Richards Building to listen to his address titled, “You are Unique, Irreplaceable, Priceless.” They followed along as Bytheway reverently spoke on the importance of knowing Jesus Christ and how that is essential to understanding our self-worth.
He emphasized the importance of the Atonement and quoted scriptures from the New Testament, Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants:
- “Ye are bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20)
- “Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as sliver and gold…but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,” (1 Peter 1: 18-19)
- “For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent,” (Doctrine and Covenants 19:16)
- "It must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice,” (Alma 34:10)
Speaking about the story of the creation, Bytheway also quoted something he heard from the radio that said, “God passed his creations in review and called them good, including you.”
Leslie Stroud, an adult attendee, said she liked Bytheway’s message that “We are worth a lot to the Lord and we can then pass that love on to others as well.”
She said it is critical for the youth to understand who they are.
“This world is telling them a completely different message than reality and other than what God thinks as well,” Stroud said.
Part of Bytheway’s address which touched Sarah Pachev, a conference attendee and mother of 11 children, was charity.
“I have seen relationships transform in ways that you wouldn't expect them,” she said. “You would think that it wasn't going to work, but when you apply charity to those relationships, things shift. It really does work, and people's hearts soften and things change.”
Bytheway said he hopes what the youth got from his address is that “the Savior was willing to redeem us because we had some worth.”
“The years they are in right now can be pretty tough, but to not use other people as a measuring stick for their self-worth, but use the Savior’s words as a measuring stick for our value to him,” he said.