Permanent Record

Yesterday, I noticed that there was a cord of rope tangled up in a wheel, and I made an attempt to untangle it. Meeting no obvious success, and starting to get frustrated with the wheel and its cord, I said to myself "I'll fix that later," and went back to another project I was working on. Then the Spirit reminded me of the danger of putting things off until "later." I wondered if this was some kind of test; a test of diligence and persistence, perhaps, then remembered that EVERYTHING is a test, so I decided to untangle the wheel sooner rather than later. As I was working on it, I wondered if God really cared whether I untangled the wheel or not, if the test actually had any effect on my standing with God, if the decision I made to untangle the wheel or not actually mattered at all. I jokingly thought of an angel putting a black mark on my permanent record because I chose not to untangle the wheel right away. It seemed ridiculous, but it got me thinking:

Do we have a Permanent Record? Yes, of course. Our actions are recorded in heaven. Even our little actions, like untangling a wheel? I don't think so. It's not big enough to make a difference, so I don't think they'd bother to record it. Is there any evidence in the scriptures to support the claim that we have Permanent Records? Not that I can think of. In fact, the scriptures often speak of repentance and "I, the Lord, [will] remember them (your sins) no more," (D&C 58: 42) so whatever "Permanent" Record we may have doesn't really seem very permanent. If there's no evidence of permanent records in the scriptures, what makes you think that we have them? For one thing, it makes sense. If our sins will be brought up at Final Judgement, they must be recorded somewhere. And for another thing, it's mentioned in a few of our hymns. Consider the second verse of Dearest Children, God is Near You:

Dearest children, holy angels
Watch your actions night and day,
And they keep a faithful record
Of the good and bad you say.
Cherish virtue! Cherish virtue!
God will bless the pure in heart.

I'm pretty sure the record covers more than just our words. They just used the word "say" rather than "do," because they had a rhyme for "say." If they wanted to use "do," they would have needed to change the second line, and that might have been tricky.

So, you have limited evidence to support part of your claim, taken from the second verse of a hymn we rarely sing. Frankly, I'm surprised you even remember that, but I'm even more surprised that you'd use that as "evidence" to support the claim of the existence of some Permanent Record. Tell me you have more.

In fact, I do. If selective information from the second verse of an obscure hymn isn't enough evidence for you, how about some more general information from the first verse of a popular hymn?

Do what is right; the day-dawn is breaking,
Hailing a future of freedom and light.
Angels above us are silent notes taking
Of ev'ry action; then do what is right!

Angels above us are taking silent notes of every action, including whether or not we untangle a cord-bound wheel when we should. I might be in trouble.

But then again, Repentance! Every sin we ever commit may go on our Permanent Record, but sincere repentance can take them off! When we repent, we get a clean slate, as if those sins never happened. Though, we still remember our past sins, partly so we can remember what we learned and do better at avoiding those sins in the future. But as far as the Permanent Record is concerned, the sins of which we've repented won't be counted against us on Judgment Day. Everything we do goes on the Permanent Record, but repentance can take things off.