Our Wants and His Wisdom

Elder Brook P. Hales of the Seventy opened his talk, Answers to Prayer, with the following words:

An important and comforting doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that our Heavenly Father has perfect love for His children. Because of that perfect love, He blesses us not only according to our desires and needs but also according to His infinite wisdom.

What I find interesting about this is that, while God doesn't always give us what we want, He sometimes does. This seems somewhat odd to me. If God knows what's best for us, why not only give us that, regardless of what we want? At the moment, I can think of a handful of reasons why God sometimes gives us what we want.

The first reason is that it may not ultimately matter. God has a perfect plan for each of us, but some elements of that plan may be nonessential or flexible, allowing us the freedom and leeway to seek our own path within the bounds The Lord has set. In fact, God might specifically plan for this. God values our agency. Perhaps our choices and preferences factor into His plans for us. He  wants what's best for us, but there may be times when having opportunities to exercise our agency and get what we want ultimately is what's best for us.

Another reason God might let us have what we want, despite Him wanting what's best for us, is that what we want is what's best for us. I don't imagine this happens often, and it may be pure coincidence when it does, but it's possible for our choices to, coincidentally or not, align with God's will, especially when we seek to follow God's will. God wants what's best for us, but perhaps we sometimes want what's best for us, too.

God gives us many blessings, and He'll certainly never give us anything that's not going to be good for us, but I find it interesting that God blesses us not only according to our needs and His wisdom, but also, occasionally, according to our desires.