The Beginning

It is my experience that accountability leads to improvement. This has been true with finances, eating habits, exercise, and even my criminal procedure class. I now therefore begin to be accountable to an imaginary audience for my daily study of the Book of Mormon. Ironically, with all there is to read in the world today, I doubt a single person will ever find, let alone read, this blog; yet that doubt is not overpowered by the mere and remote possibility that someone will, in fact, read it, and it is that mere possibility that creates in me a sense of accountability.

I intend to do a topical study of the Book of Mormon, and I begin with those verses containing the word "remember." I do this because over the past few months I have been caught up in three activities that have consumed a lot of my time, and I wonder at the worth of the activities and the wisdom in spending so much time at them. The first is journal writing. I keep a journal for myself and one for each of my two kids (even though our second will not be born until June). Because I am busy with school, I typically do my journal writing on Sundays, and sometimes I’ll sit and write for an hour just to get an entry in my own journal, and then another hour or two for our son James and for our new baby. If I don't increase my efficiency, by the time we have 5 or 6 kids, that will amount to 6 or 7 hours a week just to keep up with journal writing (once a week per person). The second activity is scanning and organizing photos. My mom and I ransacked my grandmother's house a few weeks ago while she was in the hospital (cruel, I know) and scanned every old photograph we could find. The scanning alone took many full days, and now I have hundreds of photos to identify, label, and organize. The third activity is completing the life stories of my grandparents and other ancestors. This has been ongoing for years, and I imagine it will continue for many more.

I'm realizing these activities take a lot of time, and as time is so scarce, I wonder if it is worth it. Part of my thinking has been that no one will ever take the time to read what I've written in my journals or to look through the photos or read the stories of my ancestors. And even if they do, I imagine it will only be fleeting glimpses that take a tiny fraction of the time it is taking me to do all this work. Under that reasoning, it feels somewhat pointless to continue. The benefit does not seem to be worth the effort. A while back the thought occurred to me that maybe I’m wasting my time. Maybe there’s no real point to all this. But then the Spirit whispered to me a reminder of those Book of Mormon verses admonishing us to remember. I felt a need to search and study to identify what exactly it is we are to remember, and why, and how.

In figuring out how it is we are to remember, I have decided that keeping a journal, being familiar with the life stories of my ancestors, and organizing photos are effective ways to do it, though they are likely not the only ways. (For example, studying the scriptures is an effective way to remember.) Part of understanding how to remember is deciding how much of our time should be spent on those things that help us remember. The key here is that it’s not going to be any set amount. We aren’t told to read the scriptures always, or for 10 hours a day every day. It’s something we’re commanded to do, but it’s not the only thing we’re commanded to do, and if we do nothing but read the scriptures, we'll end up being too busy reading about the gospel to actually live it. Likewise, if we spend all our time on journals and photos, we'll be too busy recording life to live it. So, I think we aren’t told exactly how long or how much to study the scriptures for the simple reason that it varies from day to day and from person to person. The important thing is to do it daily. It's the same with journals and photos: there is no set amount of time to spend on it, and it's unproductive to have it consume all your time, but it is important to do it regularly.

On the other hand, one thing we are commanded to do always is to pray. That doesn’t mean we’re on our knees with our eyes shut, consciously forming words of prayer at every minute of the day. There are express prayers, like that, and there are internal prayers, which are the kind we can always keep in our heart by directing it to Heavenly Father even while we’re driving or reading or working or throwing a frisbee. It must be that journaling and organizing photos are like express prayers—important, but we can’t neglect our other daily activities for them. But by doing the express parts (like kneeling-down prayers or organizing ancestors’ photos) it is easier to do the implicit part (like turning our thoughts to the Lord or having our hearts constantly turned to our fathers). We find it easier to think of them, to remember their lives, to feel connected to them, even as we’re going about our daily tasks. It’s one more thing to help us draw nearer to God and be exalted.

Next, I need to realize it’s ok if some people don’t think journals and family history are important or useful. Lots of people don’t think prayer and scripture study are important or useful, but that doesn't make them unimportant. I guess the thing to realize is that for me, keeping journals and knowing my ancestors is important and fulfilling. I’ll continue doing it to the extent that it remains so. Even if nobody else ever goes back and reads what I write, it is still useful because I have benefited both from the exercise of writing and from times I have gone back and read of my own past experiences. My purpose is not to have thousands of my descendants cherish the history I leave behind, so my work in creating a history is not negated by the probable lack of interest from any other person.

Now that I've understood my purpose and gotten an idea as to how the Book of Mormon verses apply to my questions, I plan to improve my journaling (and photo-ing and family history-ing), by studying a few scriptures on the subject. More than fifty verses in the Book of Mormon contain the word “remember,” and most are applicable to my concerns. This blog will document my attempts at understanding and applying these principles. I will begin by finding out what it is we are to remember.