Wherefore Can Ye Doubt?

I'm reading 52 Life-Changing Questions from the Book of Mormon by John Hilton III and Brad Wilcox.  I'm only doing the one week at a time so that it will last through the year.  It's making pause to think about things, not just related to the Book of Mormon, but to life in general.  So, here's this week's question:  Wherefore Can Ye Doubt? (1 Nephi 4:3)

There are so many things in life that can cause you to pause and can cause you to wonder.  Life doesn't always, or maybe even rarely, go in the exact way that you'd plan or like it to.  We've been told frequently that we need to act on our faith, take the first step into the darkness and wait for the light.  This is not always easy.  Sometimes, it's just about the most difficult thing in the world.

I'd love to be able to say that I have figured out some great and wonderful way to move through this, but I haven't.

"Doubts are not necessarily wrong, and they can definitely be a step toward the right.  Questions are not a sign of weakness but a sign of growth.  The weak are not discovered by their questions but by when they stop questioning.  People are not wrong when they doubt but when they fail to do something about their doubts."

I find that to be very comforting.  It's alright to doubt.  It's alright to wonder.  There are going to be things that we do not understand and that's just fine.  I tend to beat myself up when I don't feel like my faith is where it should be.  That's so not the way of the Lord.  He encourages us to question.  He encourages us to wonder.  He wants us to know for ourselves.  I'd even take it a step further and say that it's not just that He wants us to know, it's that He needs us to know.  I know that my faith is not going to look at anyone else's faith.  My trust is not going to look like anyone else's.  What's so much more important than matching my faith and trust is making sure I know where it's founded and what it means to me.  Faith and trust are very much an individual thing.  No mater that you can have faith in the same thing, how it effects you and what you decide to do with it are individual and unique.  I love that.  It's so much more important to look at where you were and where you want to be than comparing it to anyone.

I'm hoping this helps me move forward.  I want to have faith in the Lord.  I want to know that there is joy and so many blessing in this life and in the life to come.