The Worth of Souls

First of all, let me say that I know I will not ever be able to sufficiently describe this subject, being myself a mortal who does not comprehend what God can comprehend about all things (see Mosiah 4:9).

I know that God lives. He, my Heavenly Father, is as real to me as my father here on earth. While I do not stand in the physical presence of God, I do know some things about Him from the experiences I have had. To understand the worth of our souls, you must know about our divine origin. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Romans 8:16-18).

Think and ponder on those verses for a minute.

Now, here are a couple of things that I love about those verses:

1. You are a child of God. You know, the all-powerful, all-knowing Being who created all things? Yes, He is your Father. Think about the most exemplary, loving parents you know of here on earth. Their love for their children is not near as strong as the perfect love that God has for you as His child. This is how I relate the worth of your soul to God's perfect love for you - consider how loving parents here desire for their children to be just as good, if not better, than they are themselves. As you realize that God's love for you is infinite, you also come to realize that He has this same desire for you. He is perfect, so you cannot become better than Him. However, He does want you to be just like Him. As a child of Him, you can know that you can achieve that glorious purpose.
2. The Spirit bears witness with your spirit of that truth - that you are a child of God. The Spirit testifies to us about truth. And, "When we know spiritual truths by spiritual means, we can be just as sure of that knowledge as scholars and scientists are of the different kinds of knowledge they have acquired by different methods" (Dallin H. Oaks, "Testimony" April 2008 General Conference). You don't need physical evidence to be sure that God lives and loves you.
3. If you live by the Lord's ways, you are an heir of God, and a joint-heir with Christ. Consider the magnitude of that promise! He doesn't promise that you will be the richest, most popular person or that you will get everything you want when you want it. His promise is that, because you are worth so much to Him, the Lord wants to give you ALL that he has.
4. "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (verse 18). We are going to suffer adversities in this life. That is inevitable. Things are not going to always go the way that we want. This is because our will, especially about the timing of things, is not always the same as God's will. I love this quote from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis that talks about this:

"The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were 'gods' and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him - for we can prevent Him, if we choose - He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful, but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said."

"When He said, 'Be perfect,' He meant it. He meant that we must go in for the full treatment. It is hard; but the sort of compromise we are all hankering after is harder - in fact, it is impossible. It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad."

The true worth of each and every human soul is not comprehended by man. I do not fully understand it, but I do know that you and I are of great worth. I have had experiences sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ on my mission and with friends before and after that have helped me realize what joy it brings to help others come unto Christ as I continue in that quest myself. Because your soul is worth so much, it brings God great joy when you make any steps toward returning to live with Him. He loves you and wants to bless you and all of His children. In all of your interactions with people, always, always heed the Lord's counsel: "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God" (Doctrine and Covenants 18:10).