October 2026 General Conference › Lessons › Elder Hutch U. Fale › Youth

30-minute lesson · Youth · Ages 11–18: classes, quorums, or home

The Label That Outranks the Rest

From “I Am a Child of God,” by Elder Hutch U. Fale · Saturday afternoon session, October 2026 General Conference

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The big idea

I am a child of God who was loved before I did anything, and that truth is stronger than any label the world puts on me or on anyone else.

Objective

Youth will be able to explain why Heavenly Father's love is not earned and why their choices still matter, and will choose one way this week to live as a child of God among children of God.

Before you teach

  • Read Elder Fale's talk. Know the baby-picture story well enough to tell it without notes.
  • Bring sticky notes or small slips of paper with tape, pens, and one full sheet of paper with CHILD OF GOD written large.
  • Bring a baby picture of yourself if you have one. It makes a good start.
  • Ask youth to have their scriptures or the Gospel Library app ready.
  • Write on the board: John 3:16, Matthew 6:9, Matthew 7:9–11.

Lesson plan

Thirty minutes in 6 parts. Times are a guide; let the Spirit and the learners set the pace.

3 min0–3

Sixty seconds of labels

  1. As soon as the prayer ends, hand out sticky notes and pens. Give exactly sixty seconds: write as many labels as you can that the world puts on people your age, one per note. Keep them general, not about any real person (for example: popular, awkward, smart, not good enough).
  2. Have everyone stick their notes on the board. Read several aloud without comment.
  3. Ask the question below and take two quick answers. Say that you will come back to the board.
Ask
  • Which kind of label is harder to shake off: one that someone else gives you or one you give yourself?
5 min3–8

What had you done?

  1. Show your baby picture if you brought one. Tell Elder Fale's story: in a Church meeting he felt prompted to do what the teacher was doing, so he texted his wife to find a baby picture of each of their children. At home he showed the children their pictures, told them no words could fully express the love their parents felt the day they were born, and asked what they had done by that day to earn it. They looked down and answered, Nothing.
  2. Ask a youth to read the first key quote. Then tell them what he said next: what parents feel is only a small fraction of what Heavenly Father feels for them. Read the second key quote.
  3. Ask the questions below. Listen more than you talk. Acknowledge, as Elder Fale did, that not everyone has a loving family, and that Heavenly Father's love is real for every person in the room.
Ask
  • Most things in your life are earned: grades, a spot on the team, followers. Why is it hard to believe in love you cannot earn?
  • What would change in a person who really believed this love cannot be lost?
7 min8–15

Six-word summaries

  1. Put youth in pairs or threes and assign each team one reference from the board. With more than three teams, give the same verse to two teams.
  2. Each team reads its verses in their scriptures or the app and writes a summary of exactly six words of what the passage teaches about Heavenly Father. Give three minutes.
  3. Each team reads its six words aloud. The class votes for the best summary by pointing, and no one may vote for their own team.
  4. Tell them Elder Fale read John 3:16 as a young boy, riding from Nuku‘alofa to his home village of Mu‘a, and the Holy Spirit witnessed to him that it was true. Read the third key quote.
Ask
  • Elder Fale pointed out that Jesus taught us to pray to our Father, not only His Father. What does that one word say about who you are?
6 min15–21

Two honest questions

  1. Say that Elder Fale's talk speaks to two questions people really ask. Ask the first question below and let youth respond before you teach.
  2. Explain his warning: the adversary twists the truth of God's love into a lie that we can be saved regardless of our pride, rebellion, or sins, or of rejecting the Savior and His servants. Elder Fale taught that receiving Christ through ordinances and covenants, and being faithful to them, is the only way to fully understand God's love and the only way to exaltation. Being loved is where we start. It is not a reason to stay where we are.
  3. Ask the second question. Then read the fourth key quote. Elder Fale called the idea that it is too late a lie, and he pointed to the prodigal son and the one lost sheep.
  4. Check understanding: ask a volunteer to answer both questions in one sentence each, as if a friend had asked.
Ask
  • If God loves me no matter what, do my choices really matter?
  • Can a person mess up so badly, or wait so long, that it is too late to turn to Christ?
5 min21–26

No one alone

  1. Go back to the board. Explain that Elder Fale taught that when we understand God's love we become immune to the world's labels, see everyone as beloved and divine, and make sure no one is sitting, standing, or walking alone.
  2. Invite a youth to place the CHILD OF GOD sheet over the sticky notes so that it covers them. Read Sister Muñoz Spannaus's words, spoken to the young women at this conference (the aligned quote).
  3. In groups of three, give two minutes to plan a twenty-second scene: one person is sitting alone at lunch, standing alone at a youth activity, or walking alone in the hall. Show what someone who sees a child of God would actually say and do. Keep it real, not cheesy.
  4. Watch two or three scenes. After each, ask the class what made it believable.
4 min26–30

Choose and write

  1. Invite each youth to type or write Elder Fale's opening sentence where they will see it every day, such as a phone note, a lock screen, or a card in their scriptures: “I am a child of God and He loves me.”
  2. Show the act list and ask each to choose one challenge for the week. Have them tell their choice to the person beside them.
  3. Share what Elder Fale hoped this truth would give his own children: courage to do their best, to trust Heavenly Father, and to live up to their potential, and the strength and humility to come home when they need to. Bear a short testimony.
  4. Tell them you will ask next week what happened, and then do it.

Key passages from the talk

“You did not earn it; you cannot lose it. It is yours forever.”

Elder Fale’s talk, paragraph 6

“He loved you before you were born, He loves you today, and He will love you tomorrow.”

Elder Fale’s talk, paragraph 7

“God’s love is real, and Jesus Christ is evidence of that love.”

Elder Fale’s talk, paragraph 14

“there is still yet time if we turn to Christ today.”

Elder Fale’s talk, paragraph 13

Scriptures

  • John 3:16 One team reads it and writes a six-word summary. Then tell how Elder Fale gained his witness reading this verse as a boy.
  • Matthew 6:9–13 One team reads verse 9 and writes a six-word summary; ask what the word our says about who we are.
  • Matthew 7:9–11 One team reads it and writes a six-word summary of what kind of Father gives these gifts.

Other voices that agree

“knowing everything about you does not make Him love you less”

Sister Muñoz Spannaus · God Is at Your Side, paragraph 5

Three things to remember

  • I did not earn Heavenly Father's love, and I cannot lose it.
  • Because He loves me, He gave His Son and asks me to follow Him; my choices matter.
  • Everyone I meet is a child of God, and no one should be left alone.

Ways to act this week

  • Every morning this week, before you open any app, say out loud: I am a child of God and He loves me.
  • Find one person who is sitting, standing, or walking alone at school or at church, and join them. Do it at least twice.
  • When you catch yourself putting a label on someone, or on yourself, replace it in your mind with child of God.
  • If something in your life needs to be made right, do not wait. Pray tonight, and talk with a parent or your bishop this week.

Suggestions written for this lesson, not the speaker’s words.

Music

  • I Am a Child of God

Adapting the lesson

  • At home: skip the vote and the scenes. Do the labels on one sheet of paper, tell the story, read John 3:16 together, and let each person choose a challenge.
  • Small class (two to four youth): work as one team on all three scriptures and talk through one scenario instead of acting it out.
  • Short on time: keep the labels, the baby-picture story, the two honest questions, and the challenge.

This lesson is an independent study aid written for this site. It is not an official lesson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Quotations are word for word from the official talk; paragraph numbers count the paragraphs of the talk as published at churchofjesuschrist.org, not counting headings or picture captions. The activities, questions and ideas for acting are suggestions; follow the Spirit and adapt them to those you teach.