Essay

Identity and Purpose in the Plan

Young adulthood can bring a lot of questions about identity. You may be deciding what work to pursue, whom to date, whether and when to marry, what you believe, and what kind of life you want to build. In the middle of all those decisions, it is easy to start measuring yourself by what is most visible right now—your appearance, achievements, relationship status, mistakes, struggles, or what other people think of you.

The restored gospel gives you a much longer view. Before any of those things became part of your life, you were a spirit son or daughter of Heavenly Parents. You lived with God before mortality, came to earth for a divine purpose, and through Jesus Christ can become more like Them.

Knowing who you are is therefore about more than feeling confident about yourself. It helps you understand why you are here and what God is helping you become.

Your Identity Began Before This Life

The way we see ourselves, our sense of identity, affects everything we do. The world may encourage you to build your identity mainly around career success, appearance, popularity, sexuality, political beliefs, social labels, or relationship status. Some of these things may describe parts of your experience, but none of them can fully explain who you are or why you are here.

One of the biggest parts of life is learning to see yourself as God sees you. You belong to Him, and He is helping you become something greater than you can imagine.

This is why The Family: A Proclamation to the World teaches that every person is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents with a divine nature and destiny.

Your deepest identity did not come from your accomplishments, circumstances, relationships, or the opinions of other people. You belonged to Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother before mortality. The Proclamation also teaches that being male or female is part of our premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.

You cannot remember your premortal life, but it is still part of your story. Your life did not begin with the circumstances you are living in now, and those circumstances do not tell the whole story of who you are.

There is also an important difference between knowing your divine identity and assuming you have already become everything God wants you to be. You are His child, and because you are His child, you have extraordinary possibilities for growth. Jesus Christ is the One who makes that becoming possible.

Moses Learned Who He Was Before He Learned What to Do

Moses 1 gives one of the clearest examples of this.

When God appeared to Moses, He showed him something of His creations and glory. But before explaining the work Moses would eventually do, God told him something personal: “Thou art my son.” Then He added, “I have a work for thee.”

Moses first learned who he was. Then he learned that his life had a purpose.

At that point, Moses had not yet done the things we remember him for. He had not delivered Israel, crossed the Red Sea, or led a nation. God could already see what Moses might become long before Moses had accomplished it.

That matters when you feel ordinary, uncertain, or unprepared. Heavenly Father does not have to wait until you have built an impressive life before He sees your potential. He knows the gifts you have, the things you still need to learn, and the person you can become as you follow Him.

This short first-person reel adds another perspective on knowing who you are:

Your Divine Potential Is About What You Can Become

President Russell M. Nelson taught young adults, “Make no mistake about it: Your potential is divine. With your diligent seeking, God will give you glimpses of who you may become.”

Notice that President Nelson connects divine potential with seeking. God gives you identity and potential, but He also asks you to use your agency. You learn to receive revelation, make and keep covenants, repent when you need to, and keep following Jesus Christ.

Knowing that you are a child of God is not meant to leave you exactly where you are. Heavenly Father loves you now, and He also knows what you can become through His Son.

Sheri Dew described something similar in “Knowing Who You Are—and Who You Have Always Been.” She explained that her feelings about herself changed as she came to understand more clearly how the Lord felt about her. Learning who she was in God’s eyes affected the way she saw herself and the way she lived.

That kind of confidence is different from simply trying to convince yourself that you are good enough. It grows as the Holy Ghost helps you understand what Heavenly Father sees in you and then helps you live more consistently with that truth.

Why Are You Here?

You came to earth to receive a physical body, exercise agency, learn through mortal experience, form covenant relationships, repent, develop Christlike character, and prepare for eternal life.

Mortality is not simply something to get through before heaven. It is part of how you learn to become more like your Heavenly Parents.

Your life may include education, work, creativity, friendship, Church service, marriage, motherhood or fatherhood, and many other worthwhile responsibilities. But because marriage and children are central to God’s eternal plan, they are the most important reasons why we are here on earth (even though being single now does not make you less valuable or less able to grow)

When Temporary Labels Begin to Feel Permanent

Later in Moses’s experience, Satan appeared and called him “son of man.” Moses recognized that something important was missing. He answered, “I am a son of God.”

Moses was mortal, so “son of man” described something real about him. But it left out the most important truth God had just taught him.

The same thing can happen with the labels we use now. Your career, appearance, political beliefs, relationship status, sexuality, talents, mistakes, achievements, health, and personal struggles may describe real parts of your mortal experience. Trouble comes when one of those things is asked to carry the full weight of telling you who you are.

That can happen easily because mortal things are right in front of us. You can see your body, your job, your relationship status, and your successes or failures. Premortal life and eternal destiny require you to trust what God has revealed.

Sheri Dew warned about allowing “labels and logos” to crowd out divine identity. That does not mean the details of your mortal life are unimportant. It means they make the most sense when you see them inside the larger story God has given you.

What Research Suggests About Having a Sense of Purpose

Research can also help us see what a sense of purpose can do in everyday life.

In research involving 669 young adults in the United States and Canada, Patrick Hill and his colleagues found that a stronger sense of purpose in life predicted greater well-being even after researchers accounted for major personality traits. Purpose was also associated with a healthier self-image and lower levels of delinquent behavior.

That makes sense in practical terms. When you believe your life is going somewhere meaningful, one difficult experience does not have to explain everything about you. A rejection can hurt without deciding your worth. A failure can matter without deciding your future.

The restored gospel gives purpose an eternal foundation. You know where you came from, why the choices you make here matter, and what Jesus Christ can help you become.

What If My Life Does Not Look the Way I Expected?

Knowing your divine identity does not mean every righteous opportunity will arrive when you expected it.

You may still be single when you hoped to be married. You may experience infertility, divorce, health challenges, financial limitations, difficult family circumstances, or opportunities that simply do not come. Some parts of life result from choices we make. Others come from circumstances we did not choose and cannot simply change.

Heavenly Father knows the difference.

Faithful people will not lose eternal blessings because circumstances outside their control prevented opportunities they sincerely desired. You can always follow Jesus Christ faithfully with the life and opportunities you have now.

There is plenty of meaningful growth available to you today. You can keep covenants, develop your gifts, strengthen relationships, repent, serve, prepare for marriage and family, worship in the temple, and become better at loving people the way Christ does.

A Few Questions Worth Thinking About

• Which labels, accomplishments, circumstances, or struggles are most likely to become more important to me than my identity as a son or daughter of God?
• What changes when I remember that Heavenly Father knew me before mortality and sees possibilities in me that I may not yet see?
• What choice could I make this week that would better reflect who God says I am and what He is helping me become?

What Can You Do This Week?

Read Moses 1:1–21 slowly. Notice what God tells Moses about himself before Satan appears, and then notice what Moses remembers when his identity is challenged.

Then ask Heavenly Father something personal in prayer: What do You want me to understand about who I am and what You are helping me become? Pay attention to impressions from the Holy Ghost as you study the scriptures, read your patriarchal blessing, or worship in the temple.

Then act on one thing you receive. If you need to repent, begin. If someone needs your help, serve. If a relationship needs attention, take a faithful step. If you have been putting off a responsibility, begin doing it.

Jesus Christ does more than reassure you that you matter to God. He helps you become more like the person God created you to be. Through His grace, you can repent, change, develop spiritual strength, keep covenants, and grow in your ability to love and serve. As you continue following Him, you can understand your divine identity more deeply while becoming more like the Heavenly Parents whose son or daughter you have always been.