Our good friend Lindsay Anderson contributed today's post. Thank you, Lindsay!
The importance of keeping a record is repeatedly taught in the Book of Mormon. In fact, that is what the Book of Mormon is -- a kept record.
Nephi was asked to obtain the records contained in the brass plates of Laban. He was also asked to keep a record of his own people. Enos was so concerned with the importance of the record that he asked the Lord to preserve it. The entire book of Omni -- all 30 verses -- is an example of how crucial all five authors knew that keeping the record was. They may have only penned a few sentences in their lifetime, but small or not, they knew that what they were doing was significant. And these examples only come from the first 150 pages!
But why? Why so much emphasis and struggle to keep and maintain this record?
Well, first and foremost, it was a commandment. After Nephi had made the plates "by way of commandment," he writes that, "I, Nephi, received a commandment that the ministry and the prophecies, the more plain and precious parts of them, should be written upon these plates; and that the things which were written should be kept for the instruction of my people, who should possess the land, and also for other wise purposes, which purposes are known unto the Lord" (see 1 Nephi 19:3).
That it was a commandment should be reason enough, but as we learn from Amaleki in the book of Omni, if a record wasn't kept, the language of a people (in this case, the people of Zarahemla) would become corrupted and lost and as a result they would not know their Creator.
Which brings up perhaps the most important reason a record was kept: to teach those who would read it -- to teach us -- to come unto Christ. As Mormon writes,
"And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will.
"And my prayer to God is concerning my brethren, that they may once again come to the knowledge of God, yea, the redemption of Christ; that they may once again be a delightsome people" (Words of Mormon 1:7-8).
And as King Benjamin teaches his sons:
"My sons, I would that ye should remember that were it not for these plates, which contain these records and these commandments, we must have suffered in ignorance, even at this present time, not knowing the mysteries of God.
"For it were not possible that our father, Lehi, could have remembered all these things, to have taught them to his children, except it were for the help of these plates; for he having been taught in the language of the Egyptians therefore he could read these engravings, and teach them to his children, that thereby they could teach them to their children, and so fulfilling the commandments of God, even down to this present time.
"I say unto you, my sons, were it not for these things, which have been kept and preserved by the hand of God, that we might read and understand of his mysteries, and have his commandments always before our eyes, that even our fathers would have dwindled in unbelief, and we should have been like unto our brethren, the Lamanites, who know nothing concerning these things, or even do not believe them when they are taught them, because of the traditions of their fathers, which are not correct.
"O my sons, I would that ye should remember that these sayings are true, and also that these records are true. And behold, also the plates of Nephi, which contain the records and the sayings of our fathers from the time they left Jerusalem until now, and they are true; and we can know of their surety because we have them before our eyes.
"And now, my sons, I would that ye should remember to search them diligently, that ye may profit thereby; and I would that ye should keep the commandments of God, that ye may prosper in the land according to the promises which the Lord made unto our fathers" (Mosiah 1:3-7).
In the last few weeks, as I came to these verses in my daily scripture reading, I found myself "likening them unto myself." It hit me that keeping a record of my own -- whether it be via a personal journal, a blog, a photo album with captions -- is not too unlike what the Nephites were asked to do. It is something I have been asked by modern prophets to do because it will serve a wise purpose, which purpose is known unto the Lord.
As I thumb back over the things I have written, the records I've kept, I've realized that when I write honestly about the things I do each day and the thoughts I have while doing them, my testimony can't help but seep through. The same thing happened as the Nephites wrote about repairing broken bows, building ships and traveling through the wilderness, marching to war, and ultimately witnessing Christ himself as He visited and taught them in the Americas. As routine as their lives might have sometimes seemed on a daily basis, they wrote about them anyway. They wrote because it was a commandment and would serve a wise purpose, and as they did so, as they bore their record, their testimonies were not only apparent, they blossomed.
Just as ours can when we read the Book of Mormon, and just as they will when we bear records of our own.
