A Record of My Proceedings

One of the messages from Nephi for me is the importance of keeping a record of one’s life. He labored diligently to write records, part of which we have today in the Book of Mormon. We see this focus in the very first verse when Nephi told us, “Having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days.” Nephi labored diligently to record both the blessings of the Lord to him and his own knowledge of the mysteries of God. He described his efforts this way, “But I shall make an account of my proceedings in my days. Behold, I make an abridgment of the record of my father, upon plates which I have made with mine own hands; wherefore, after I have abridged the record of my father then will I make an account of mine own life” (1 Nephi 1:1, 17). He later told of the efforts he made to record the events of his life: “And I, Nephi, had kept the records upon my plates, which I had made, of my people thus far. And it came to pass that the Lord God said unto me: Make other plates; and thou shalt engraven many things upon them which are good in my sight, for the profit of thy people. Wherefore, I, Nephi, to be obedient to the commandments of the Lord, went and made these plates upon which I have engraven these things” (2 Nephi 5:29-31). He made two sets of plates and painstakingly engraved the things of God and his life upon them.

Nephi wrote essentially three records: the record of his father (on the large plates), his own record (on the large plates), and his own record again on the small plates (that we have today). He described these efforts in these words, “And it came to pass that the Lord commanded me, wherefore I did make plates of ore that I might engraven upon them the record of my people. And upon the plates which I made I did engraven the record of my father, and also our journeyings in the wilderness, and the prophecies of my father; and also many of mine own prophecies have I engraven upon them. And I knew not at the time when I made them that I should be commanded of the Lord to make these plates; wherefore, the record of my father, and the genealogy of his fathers, and the more part of all our proceedings in the wilderness are engraven upon those first plates of which I have spoken; wherefore, the things which transpired before I made these plates are, of a truth, more particularly made mention upon the first plates” (1 Nephi 19:1-2). I don’t think we appreciate the amount of effort this was. He didn’t just grab a piece of paper, a pen, and start writing. He first made the plates from ore which surely must have been a difficult process. Then he had to carefully engraven his records upon them. Jacob would later highlight the challenge of writing on the metal plates: “I cannot write but a little of my words, because of the difficulty of engraving our words upon plates” (Jacob 4:1). Despite this difficulty, Nephi persevered to give us the story of his life, his family, and his witness of Jesus Christ.

Nephi’s example invites us to take the effort to record what happens in our own life, whether in written words or photos or videos or recorded voice or something else. It is so much easier for us with the technology we have to make a record of our own lives and the blessings of the Lord to us. Like Nephi, we can record both the goodness of God we have seen through the events of our life and our knowledge of Him. Like Nephi we may only be able to write “but a small part of the things” that happen to us, but that should not prevent us from seeking to record His hand in our life.