Comprehending Yourself

While I was sitting in church today, the Elder's Quorum lesson piqued my interest. There was a certain sentence that I read as I scanned through the lesson manual while the teacher was telling a story. It's a statement by the Prophet Joseph Smith:

If men do not comprehend the character of God, they do not comprehend themselves.

That really embedded itself in my mind when I read it. I've read and/or heard this quote dozens of times before, but it has never struck me the way it did today. I read the statement and the surrounding paragraphs several times, trying to figure out why this was so interesting to me. What was I supposed to learn from this statement? Why was the Spirit telling me to ponder this particular sentence?

Then I multiplied the statement by -1: If men do not do comprehend the character of God, they do not do comprehend themselves.

Some of the questions I ask myself about being gay are: Why this situation in my life? Why this trial? Why am I different? What am I supposed to learn? How am I supposed to act?

These questions all lead up to the final statment of exasperation, I don't understand.

Wait a minute.

I don't understand? If I don't know or understand the answers to any of those questions, doesn't that seem to lead to the concept that I don't comprehend myself?

I don't comprehend myself because I don't comprehend God. And if I come to comprehend God, I will comprehend myself. So, maybe the best way to understand my life and the way it is, is to stop focusing so much on understanding gay and focus more on understading God.

If men do comprehend the character of God, they do comprehend themselves.