What Do I Do When I Don't Know?

I recently attended the temple with this question in mind, hoping to receive answers while I was there. If you're anything like me, there are a lot of things in your life that you don't understand the purpose of. You don't know why you're going through this particular trial, or why you have to wait for something good that you feel you are ready for, or how everything is going to turn out okay when right now it seems like a whirlwind mess.

Maybe you don't know which major to choose, or why a certain sickness or injury is preventing you from doing what you love, or what really happens to loved ones after they die.

Well here's what I learned while I was at the temple:

What do you do when you don't know?

1) Ask someone who does know

Often there are people around you who have more experience or more knowledge regarding the thing you're struggling to understand. They might not always know for sure, but they can certainly point you in the right direction or give you helpful insight.

If you're like me, you may be hesitant to ask for help, because asking means admitting you don't know, and you don't want to feel foolish for not knowing.

Well, here's the truth:

If you don't ask, you will always not know.
And choosing ignorance over loss of pride is far more foolish than simply asking.

2) Realize you already know

This is a big one. You may not know the precise reason for certain things, or understand certain principles fully, but your can fall back on certain truths that you do know to help you out.

I don't know why I am in constant pain or why after my back gets fixed it immediately falls back into disarray, and I don't know how it's going to get better or how I'm going to continue to dance all semester with it in its current state.

But I do know that Heavenly Father has a plan for me.
I know that He will not give me a trial that I am not able to handle with His help.
I know that all things will work together for my good.

1 Nephi 11:17

And I can rely on those truths I do know to help me get past what I don't.

3) Trust that in time, you will know

"Wherefore, the things of all nations shall be made known;
 yea, all things shall be made known unto the children of men."
2 Nephi 30:16

Maybe you won't know the answer today, or tomorrow, or this week, or this year.
Maybe no one you ask can give you the answer.
Maybe even the Lord is withholding the answer from you - for now.

In the Lord's own timing, He will reveal the purpose for our trials, the meaning behind certain things in your life, the answers to questions that we, as mortals, simply cannot yet comprehend.

You won't know now, but someday you will.
And until that day, simply have faith that there is a reason, and there is an answer,
even if you don't yet know what it is.