4 Wherefore, I, Nephi, did make a record upon the other plates, which gives an account, or which gives a greater account of the wars and contentions and destructions of my people. And this have I done, and commanded my people what they should do after I was gone; and that these plates should be handed down from one generation to another, or from one prophet to another, until further commandments of the Lord.
5 And an account of my making these plates shall be given hereafter; and then, behold, I proceed according to that which I have spoken; and this I do that the more sacred things may be kept for the knowledge of my people.
There are several places throughout the scriptures that make
it clear how important record keeping is to the Lord. The fact that Nephi gives
so much attention to not just keeping the record, but telling us how and why he
is keeping and organizing his records, is evidence that this is an important
thing to the Lord. It may be important to Nephi personally as well, but as he
makes very clear, this is a record of his dealings with the Lord. Nearly
everything Nephi records in this record are because of, or comes from his
dealings with the Lord. So we must assume that the topic of record keeping is
not an exception to that rule. Record keeping is important to the Lord.
