D&C 38:11-13 Why does the Lord give us commandments? What if they don't make sense to me?

 Prophet George Albert Smith taught the following about why the Lord gives us commandments:

“When I was a child I recognized, or thought I did, that the commandments of the Lord were His laws and regulations for my guidance. I thought I recognized in the disobedience to those laws that punishment would follow. … But as I grew older I have learned the lesson from another viewpoint, and now to me the laws of the Lord … are but the sweet music of the voice of our Father in heaven in His mercy to us. They are but the advice and counsel of a loving parent, who is more concerned in our welfare than earthly parents can be, and consequently that which at one time seemed to bear the harsh name of law to me is now the loving and tender advice of an all-wise Heavenly Father. And so I say it is not hard for me to believe that it is best for me to keep the commandments of God” (President George Albert Smith. Teachings of Presidents of the Church: George Albert Smith [2011], 193–94).

D&C 35:3 Jesus Christ knows each of us by name.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught: 

“The same God that placed that star in a precise orbit millennia before it appeared over Bethlehem in celebration of the birth of the Babe has given at least equal attention to placement of each of us in precise human orbits so that we may, if we will, illuminate the landscape of our individual lives, so that our light may not only lead others but warm them as well.” (Elder Neal A. Maxwell, "That My Family Should Partake," p. 86)

“I testify to you that God has known you individually … for a long, long time (see D&C 93:23). He has loved you for a long, long time. … He knows your names and all your heartaches and your joys!” (Elder Neal A Maxwell “Remember How Merciful the Lord Hath Been,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2004, 46).