My Record Is True

 

1 Nephi 1:3

And I know that the record which I make is true; and I make it with mine own hand; and I make it according to my knowledge.

The small plates of Nephi are not a journal. They are Nephi's mature reflections on his life. He wrote from the perspective of experience over many years. He was being truthful "according to his knowledge," but that knowledge had been tempered, sifted, analyzed, pondered, and put into perspective. He was specifically providing the best information in the best light, so we would have the best view of his faith. He surely had many things to repent of as a youth and a young man. Remember, he was a "wretched man" (see 2 Nephi 4:17) like the rest of us. But he did not need to parade his sins before us. He had repented, and the atonement had worked, and that was enough. We should consider our own lives in the same way.

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