As a people, we have been extraordinarily good at keeping the very first commandment given by the Lord to the newly organized Church of Christ in April 1830: “Behold, there shall be a record kept among you” (D&C 21:1). Our initial impulse in recording our lives and remembering the past is to emphasize the good, even the heroic. This is a great virtue and act of charity toward ourselves and our forebears. We don’t pretend that we or our ancestors are perfect, but we do highlight what is noble and worthy of emulation. We hope our record will have inspirational value for someone down the road who might encounter it and need a bit of uplift. Naturally, there’s some aspect of vanity involved as well—we want others to see us at our best.
