“And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come;” (D&C 93:24). I feel that sometimes we equate truth and knowledge with facts. Facts can be very useful but by their very nature they can only tell one frozen sliver of the truth. To know a thing not only as it is right now, but also to know all of the circumstances and events that have led to the present moment, and all of the effects that this thing right now will have in the days and years to come is to know the truth about that thing. The truth has the compassion to embrace all of the ugliness of the past, and the bravery to confront all of the uncertainty of the future, and to act in the present moment in the way that honors the good intentions and righteous desires of our past self who was doing the best they could with the knowledge and abilities that they had and at the same time sacrifices the fleeting and momentary pleasures and expediencies of the present moment to give to our future self the best possible chance for success. To embrace the truth is to have constantly before us all of our past and present and future selves, taking the knowledge and experience of the past and the hope and vision of the future and the faith and joy of the present moment to be as true as we possibly can to everything that we are, everything that we were, and everything that we can come to be.
