“Jesus Christ and His Gospel Are the Strength of Youth,” Liahona, Feb. 2023, United States and Canada Section.
Jesus Christ and His Gospel Are the Strength of Youth
The new guide for youth will help them seek the Spirit in making gospel-centered decisions.
Detail from The Second Coming, by Grant Romney Clawson, based on an original by Harry Anderson
The Church has recently released an updated version of For the Strength of Youth: A Guide for Making Choices. The “Message from the First Presidency” on page 2 of the guide notes that it will help your children “build a solid foundation for making choices to stay on the covenant path. It will help [them] prepare to make sacred covenants in the temple, prepare to serve a mission, and find joy in following Jesus Christ.”
How to Use the Guidebook
Today’s youth face challenges that are constantly changing and that vary across the world. But the gospel of Jesus Christ is everlasting and universal. The Savior is the best “guide for making choices.” That’s why the new For the Strength of Youth points youth to Jesus Christ and the principles of His gospel to guide their decisions. That approach helps youth become more spiritually self-reliant.
The guide serves as another example of how the Lord is leading His Church members to live His gospel in a “higher and holier way.”1 It focuses on doctrine and principles of the Lord’s gospel instead of specific behaviors. In that, it is similar to such changes as ministering replacing home and visiting teaching; Come, Follow Me replacing manuals for teaching; and Preach My Gospel: A Guide for Missionary Service replacing lessons that missionaries memorized.
This new version of For the Strength of Youth is organized so that each section (1) teaches eternal truths, (2) offers invitations to act on those truths, (3) describes blessings promised to those who obey those truths, (4) lists scriptures and questions and answers on the topic, and (5) provides temple recommend questions related to the topic.
As you counsel with and guide your children on important life decisions, help them see that the Savior and His gospel can guide them. Remind them that For the Strength of Youth can be a helpful resource to understand how the gospel can apply to their decisions. You could invite them to read it, ponder it, and then share with you a few things they learned. As they read For the Strength of Youth with their own questions in mind, the Spirit and the gospel principles in the guide will help them make their own inspired decisions.