President Spencer
W. Kimball's Thoughts and Teachings
on Personal History, Journals, and Record Keeping
On the bookshelves
in my office at home there are thirty-three large, well-filled journal
books. In my journal, a year for each
book, I have written daily and filed in this library. It records the trips to many of the nations
in the world and all around the world and meetings held, people contacted,
marriages performed, and all things of interest to my family, and, I hope,
someday to the Church.
I urge all of the people of this church to give serious
attention to their family histories, to encourage their parents and
grandparents to write their journals, and let no family go into eternity
without having left their memoirs for their children, their grandchildren, and
their posterity. This is a duty and a
responsibility, and I urge every person to start the children out writing a
personal history and journal.”
Kimball, Spencer W., “The True Way
The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p.349
Keeping journals reminds us of blessings. Those who keep a
book of remembrance are more likely to keep the Lord in remembrance in their
daily lives. Journals are a way of counting our blessings and of leaving an
inventory of these blessings for our posterity. (78-08)
The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p.349
Personal history is a teaching tool. We renew our appeal for
the keeping of individual histories and accounts of sacred experiences in our
lives—answered prayers, inspiration from the Lord, administrations in our
behalf, a record of the special times and events of our lives. From these
records you can also appropriately draw as you relay faith-promoting stories in
your family circles and discussions. Stories of inspiration from our own lives
and those of our forebears as well as stories from our scriptures and our
history are powerful teaching tools. I promise you that if you will keep your
journals and records they will indeed be a source of great inspiration to you,
each other, your children, your grandchildren, and others throughout the
generations. (82-01)
The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p.350
Keep an honest, interesting journal. Again, how happy we are
as we find our grandparents' journals and follow them through their trials and
joys and gain for our own lives much from the experiences and faith and courage
of our ancestors.
The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p.350
Accordingly, we urge our young people to begin today to
write and keep records of all the important things in their own lives and also
the lives of their antecedents in the event that their parents should fail to
record all the important incidents in their own lives. Your own private journal
should record the way you face up to challenges that beset you. Do not suppose
life changes so much that your experiences will not be interesting to your
posterity. Experiences of work, relations with people, and an awareness of the
rightness and wrongness of actions will always be relevant. ...
The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p.350
No one is commonplace, and I doubt if you can ever read a
biography from which you cannot learn something from the difficulties overcome
and the struggles made to succeed. These are the measuring rods for the
progress of humanity.
The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p.350
As we read the stories of great men, we discover that they
did not become famous overnight nor were they born professionals or skilled
craftsmen. The story of how they became what they are may be helpful to us all.
The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p.350
Your own journal, like most others, will tell of problems as
old as the world and how you dealt with them.
The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p.350
Your journal should contain your true self rather than a
picture of you when you are "made up" for a public performance. There
is a temptation to paint one's virtues in rich color and whitewash the vices,
but there is also the opposite pitfall of accentuating the negative. Personally
I have little respect for anyone who delves into the ugly phases of the life he
is portraying, whether it be his own or another's. The truth should be told,
but we should not emphasize the negative. Even a long life full of inspiring
experiences can be brought to the dust by one ugly story. Why dwell on that one
ugly truth about someone whose life has been largely circumspect?
The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p.351
Your journal is your autobiography, so it should be kept
carefully. You are unique, and there may be incidents in your experience that
are more noble and praiseworthy in their way than those recorded in any other
life. There may be a flash of illumination here and a story of faithfulness
there; you should truthfully record your real self and not what other people
may see in you.
The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p.351
Your story should be written now while it is fresh and while
the true details are available.
The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p.351
What could you do better for your children and your
children's children than to record the story of your life, your triumphs over
adversity, your recovery after a fall, your progress when all seemed black,
your rejoicing when you had finally achieved?
The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p.351
Some of what you write may be humdrum dates and places, but
there will also be rich passages that will be quoted by your posterity.
The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p.351
Get a notebook, my young folks, a journal that will last
through all time, and maybe the angels may quote from it for eternity. Begin
today and write in it your goings and comings, your deepest thoughts, your
achievements and your failures, your associations and your triumphs, your
impressions and your testimonies. Remember, the Savior chastised those who
failed to record important events. (75-52)
I promise you that if you will keep your journals and
records, they will indeed be a source of great inspiration to your families, to
your children, your grandchildren, and others, on through the generations, Each
of us is important to those who are near and dear to us and as our posterity
read of our life’s experiences, they too, will come to know and love us. And in that glorious day when our families
are together in the eternities, we will already be acquainted.
“President Kimball speaks out on Personal Journals.” New
Era. Dec. 1980, pg. 26
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