Sometimes the Lord knows we need a detour.

When we make important decisions, God expects us to use our intelligence and common sense to study the options, then pray for guidance.

But that’s not all. Once we’ve received a prompting from the Spirit, God expects us to trust Him and act on it.

That can be hard when the answer we’ve gotten leads us on a difficult path. Sometimes we follow the Spirit and still end up someplace we didn’t think we’d be. What gives?

This story from the life of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland gives one possible answer: sometimes the Lord leads us on a path not because it’s the one that will get us to our destination, but because we needed to learn something from the detour.