(LifeSiteNews) — A recent high school graduate has gone viral for her faith-based definition of success and advice to her classmates during their commencement ceremony.

Lydia Owens did not hide her religious convictions while addressing the Woodmont High School Class of 2023 in Piedmont, South Carolina on May 31. During a brief speech as valedictorian and senior class president, the 18-year-old encouraged her peers to remember that, regardless of any successes and failures in the future, “you are still valuable, and you are still good enough because you are made in the image of God.”

Owens began her speech by sharing her struggle with perfectionism and “plac[ing] my value in my academic achievements.” She asked her classmates to “consider what success means to you,” whether that be college, career, money or friends. Then she added that “your successes are not what make you valuable because you are so much more than how well you perform.”

“If you place your identity in what you accomplish and you believe that you’re only good enough if you succeed, what happens when you fail?” the girl asked. “Placing your identity in the things of this world will disappoint you because they are only temporary.”

Owens shared that she came to understand this two years ago after her mother died, saying that “when tragedy struck my life, it was not my grades nor my accomplishments that helped me navigate through that loss. When everything else in my life felt uncertain, the only person that I could depend on to stay the same was Jesus.”

Her words were interrupted by applause. Smiling up at the crowd, Owens continued to declare that “constantly striving to be perfect has never satisfied me,” adding that “what does satisfy me is knowing that my worth is not found in my successes or my failures.”

“My worth and your worth is found in Jesus because He is the only one who will ever satisfy us,” she said, rendering more applause. “Even if you accomplish all of your dreams, or none of them at all, you are still valuable and you are still good enough because you are made in the image of God. You don’t have to worry about whether or not you’ll be successful because God promises that His grace is sufficient for us and that His power is made perfect in our weaknesses.”

Owens’ testimony to her Christian faith is just one of many scenarios in which young students have bravely shared a view and belief that challenges the modern culture’s promotion of agendas and ideologies that mock God and belittle the dignity of human beings made in His image. Last month, a seventh grader from Massachusetts defended the truth that God created male and female, challenging the gender ideology permeating public school systems around the world.

In Canada, Catholic student Josh Alexander has attracted tremendous attention for rejecting LGBT protocols and defending the rights of girls to use private facilities without the fear of gender confused boys entering.

LifeSiteNews also reported in April that hundreds of current and former students at a Catholic women’s college had come together to encourage a rededication to upholding Church teaching on the dignity of every human life, born and unborn, as created in God’s image.

RELATED:

Court denies 12-year-old boy’s request to wear banned ‘two genders’ shirt at school

Gavin Newsom threatens California schools with investigations if they remove woke books

Students who attended March for Life kicked out of Smithsonian for wearing anti-abortion hats