The Great Worth of Journals

My sons, I would that ye should remember that were it not for these plates, which contain these records and these commandments, we must have suffered in ignorance.       For it were not possible that our father, Lehi could have remembered all these things, to have taught them to his children, except it were for the help of these plates. . . therefore he could read these engravings, and teach them to his children, that thereby they could teach them to their children, and so fulfilling the commandments of God, even down to this present time.      I say unto you, my sons, were it not for these things,preserved by the hand of God, that we might  have his commandments always before our eyes, that even our fathers would have dwindled in unbelief. ~King Benjamin to his sons Mosiah, Helorum, and Helaman, about 130 B.C.

“Of Far More Worth than Gold”

by Wilford Woodruff

I would advise you to get all of your blessings written and preserve them. . . If the power and blessings of God are made manifest in your preservation form danger; ; ; you should make a record of it. Keep an account of the dealings of God with you daily. I have written all the blessings I have received, and I would not take gold for them.

Should we not have respect enough to God to make a record of those blessings which He pours out upon us and our official acts which we do in His name upon the face of the earth? I think we should.
I think the Lord requires this at our hands, and it is a rich and holy legacy which is justly due our posterity.

Children should begin early to keep journals.

I wish to say to my young friends that it will be a great blessing to them, and their children after them, if they will keep a daily journal of what takes place with them and around them. Let all the boys and girls get them a little book, and write a little in it almost every day.

“What shall I write?” you ask. Write about anything that is worth preserving, or the best you have; and if you begin this while you are young, it will be quite easy for you when you become men and women. How pleasing it would be to you, and to your children, thirty, fifty, or eighty years hence, to sit down and read what took place with our fathers, and mothers, and grand parents, while they were young and during their lives? But the object is not so much to get you to keep a journal while you are young, as it is to get you to continue it after you become men and women, even through you whole lives. This is especially needed in the generation in which you live, for you live in as important a generation as the children of men ever saw, and it is far more important that you should begin early to keep a journal and follow the practice while you live, than that other generations should do so.

If my young friends will begin to do this and continue it, it will be of far more worth than gold to them in a future day.