Seen: Names, Labels and Who You Really Are
From “A Child of God,” by President Rosemary K. Chibota · Sunday morning session, October 2026 General Conference
The big idea
Jesus Christ sees past every label to a child of God, and He asks us to see others, and ourselves, the same way.
Objective
Youth will explain how the Savior saw people others walked past, replace one label with an eternal truth, and choose one person whose name they will learn this week.
Before you teach
- Read President Chibota’s talk, especially paragraphs 1–6 and 10–14.
- Bring a half sheet of paper and a pen for each person, and something to write on the board with.
- Ask the youth to have their scriptures or the Gospel Library app open.
- Write the three team questions on the board before class: Who was overlooked? What did Jesus or the Samaritan see? What did he do next?
Lesson plan
Thirty minutes in 6 parts. Times are a guide; let the Spirit and the learners set the pace.
Sixty-second name challenge
- As soon as the prayer ends, hand out paper. Say: you have sixty seconds. Write the first names of adults you see every week who are not your teachers, leaders or family: a bus driver, a custodian, someone who serves lunch, a neighbor, a store clerk. Only names count, not job titles.
- Time it. Ask for the highest count and congratulate the winner. Then ask who had a job in mind but no name to write. Most hands will go up, including yours.
- Say: hold on to that blank. We will come back to it.
Your daughter sees me
- Tell them President Chibota, the Primary General President, taught about the southern African greeting sawubona, which means “I see you.” Have someone read paragraph 1.
- Have another youth read paragraphs 5–6, about the school janitor. Let the janitor’s words land: “Very few students know my name. Your daughter sees me.”
- Ask the questions below. Take quick answers; do not correct.
- The daughter did three things: greeted him, knew his name, helped him clean up after lunch. Which of those is hardest at your school, and why?
- Who at school is easy to walk past?
Three teams, three people Jesus saw
- Make three teams. Assign Mark 10:21, John 5:2–9 and Luke 10:30–35.
- Each team has four minutes to read and prepare a thirty-second report answering the three questions on the board. Creative reports are welcome: a quick sketch on the board, a news headline, or a ten-second freeze-frame acting it out.
- Hear the reports. After each, read President Chibota’s sentence about that account from paragraphs 2–4. Point out that the man at the pool had been ill 38 years and that she said others had walked past him for years.
- Read the first key quote together and ask the question below.
- In each account, what did the one who stopped notice that everyone else missed?
Labels on the board
- Ask the class to call out labels people get at school or online, never a real person’s name, only the labels: popular, weird, smart, benchwarmer, new kid. Write them all over the board for one minute.
- Ask the first question below. Then have someone read paragraphs 10–11 and the second key quote.
- Tell them President Chibota said she has sometimes viewed herself through labels too. Read what President Oaks told her in paragraph 12, and then paragraph 14.
- Invite a youth to come up, erase or cross out the labels, and write her three eternal truths large in the middle: Child of God. Child of the covenant. Disciple of Jesus Christ.
- Give one minute of silent writing on the back of their paper: one label I am tired of carrying, and the truth I will put in its place. This stays private.
- Which of these labels would still be true about a person in five years? Which were true before they were born?
- President Chibota said our identity is not something we achieve but something we inherit. Why is that good news on a bad day?
What if I am the one who feels unseen?
- Say plainly that some weeks every one of us feels like the person nobody notices. Read paragraph 22 slowly (third key quote).
- Read Sister Muñoz Spannaus’s words from this conference (aligned quote).
- Invite anyone who wishes to answer the question below. Allow silence. Share a brief testimony of your own that the Savior knows them by name.
- When have you felt that Heavenly Father knew what was going on in your life?
This week’s challenge
- Read President Chibota’s three invitations (see invitations). Go back to the blank from the name challenge: have each youth write one person whose name they will learn before next Sunday.
- Have them take out their phones and type the three eternal truths into a note or reminder they will see each morning, along with the words pray to see.
- Share her promise from her own experience with a coworker: when we ask Heavenly Father to help us see others, He guides us to those who feel unseen. Read President Farnes’s words (aligned quote).
- Check for understanding: ask two youth to say in one sentence what sawubona means and whom they will say it to, in their own way, this week.
- Follow up next week: start class with a one-minute report. Ask whose name they learned and what the person’s reaction was. Share your own first.
Key passages from the talk
“Where others saw labels, He saw beloved sons and daughters of God.”
“Our identity is not something we achieve; it is something we inherit as beloved sons and daughters of God.”
“I see you. More important, your Heavenly Father sees you. Your Savior, Jesus Christ, sees you. They know your name, your circumstances, your gifts, and your divine potential.”
“That eternal identity does not change when circumstances change, when we make mistakes, or when others misunderstand us.”
The speaker’s direct invitations
“This week, I invite you to: Learn the name of someone who may feel unseen.”
“Pray to see others as Heavenly Father sees them.”
“Replace worldly labels with these eternal truths: Child of God. Child of the covenant. Disciple of Jesus Christ.”
Scriptures
- Mark 10:21 Team 1 reads it and reports what the Savior felt for the rich young man as He looked at him.
- John 5:2–9 Team 2 reads it and reports who had been overlooked at the pool of Bethesda and what the Savior did.
- Luke 10:30–35 Team 3 reads it and reports who walked past, who stopped, and everything the Samaritan did to help.
Other voices that agree
“knowing everything about you does not make Him love you less”
“let us pray every day for eyes to see the divine appointments God places before us!”
Three things to remember
- Jesus sees a child of God where other people see a label.
- My identity as a child of God is inherited, not earned, and it does not change when I make mistakes.
- Learning one name can help someone feel seen.
Ways to act this week
- Learn the name of one person at school or in your neighborhood who may feel unseen, and greet that person by name at least twice this week.
- Before school each day, pray to see others as Heavenly Father sees them, and follow one prompting to include someone.
- When a label about yourself or someone else comes to mind, replace it with child of God.
- Thank a custodian, bus driver or lunch worker by name.
Suggestions written for this lesson, not the speaker’s words.
Music
- Lord, I Would Follow Thee
Adapting the lesson
- At home or with two or three youth: do the name challenge together as a family list, read John 5:2–9 only, and spend more time on the private writing about labels.
- Large class: run six teams, two per passage, and let the class vote on the clearest thirty-second report.
- No phones in class: have youth write the three eternal truths on their paper and put it where they will see it each morning.
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.