Emily Romrell

Estimated Reading Time 6 Minutes

Alrighty, let’s get down to business. Today we’re talking about a principle that I’ve been thinking about quite a bit the last few weeks. It’s something that I actually heard about from my sister, Kimberly who is amazing. I did an interview with Kimberly on episode 10 and you should check that out if you haven’t yet. But She explained a concept to me about the word ‘nevertheless’ in a way that I haven’t considered before. And I’m psyched to share this idea with you. Today we’re talking about the word ‘nevertheless’ and looking for a higher meaning.

I’m going to get a little spiritual here for a minute. Did you know the word ‘nevertheless’ appears in the scriptures 342 times? I always thought of the phrase as something like and so we did this, kind of like a next step or an ancient way of saying ‘however’. And that’s a good beginning, but the thing my sister taught me is that the word ‘nevertheless’ always precedes a higher meaning in the scriptures.

Let’s take a look at a couple of my favorite examples:

The first one is from The Book of Mormon 1 Nephi 18:11. And it came to pass that Laman and Lemuel did take me and bind me with cords, and they did treat me with much harshness; nevertheless, the Lord did suffer it that he might show forth his power, unto the fulfilling of his word which he had spoken concerning the wicked.

So this is the third or fourth time in the story of Nephi where his brothers try to hurt him. In the previous situations, Nephi was rescued relatively fast. An angel appeared telling his brothers to stop beating him. He was given the power to shock his brothers in an earlier attempt they made to kill him. But in this instance, he was tied up on the ship for several days. I’m sure Nephi was feeling a little perplexed at this.

But we learn that “Nevertheless, the Lord did suffer it that he might show forth his power, unto the fulfilling of his word” I think that in this case, Nephi had to suffer longer in order to show the chaos and how lost we can become if we ignore the commandments or promptings from Heavenly Father. In this example, Nephi and his family are on a ship and a raging storm gets worse and worse until the brothers finally set him free. Then the storm finally ends.

So again, here the message is sometimes we are put into really challenging situations for longer than we want. It can feel frustrating, perplexing, and painful. But in the end, if we’re patient and have faith then the Lord will show forth his power in our lives.

Maybe the most powerful example of ‘nevertheless’ in the scriptures is from the New Testament where the Savior is about to perform the atonement. Matthew 26: 39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

There is a lot that I could say about this but to keep things short, let’s keep it simple. If the Savior can turn his will over to Heavenly Father, then we can do it too, even though in a much lesser degree. That’s what conversion is, right? Changing our hearts to be like his.

If you’re up to it, a fun exercise would be to take some time and look up some other scriptures with the word nevertheless and try to find the higher meaning in the story. One thing I personally love about the scriptures is how multi-layered they are. You can almost always find a deeper meaning if you’re willing to look.

So that’s great for the scriptures you may be thinking, but what about real life? I think using this word as a tool to find higher meanings in the situations of life can be helpful.

One of the easy examples is when something happens that makes you feel angry, like road rage. I am definitely not perfect at this. But if I’m driving and someone cuts me off it’s so easy to get mad and start talking smack about how crazy other drivers are. But if I take a second to breathe and look for a higher meaning it might look something like this: I’m frustrated that someone cut me off while I was driving. Nevertheless, I’m not going to spend negative energy focusing on that. I’m going to think of better things and truly enjoy this drive. When you try to use ‘nevertheless’ it’s a lot easier to take the high road. Pun intended.

But it’s not just about the hard stuff. You can find a higher meaning in happy things too. You know, I’m pretty sappy and I love soaking in little happy moments during everyday situations. I love to go on walks outside and I’m almost always astounded at the beautiful world we live in. I’m in Utah where we have some truly majestic mountains. But even here in the valley, in my little neighborhood, we have beautiful parks and there are trees and flowers galore in the yards and flowerbeds of people’s homes. I often get little heart pangs when I walk under a beautiful tree. Sunsets here are magnificent too. I love to watch birds and other animals. My parents have a hummingbird feeder in their yard and it’s so fun to see the hummingbirds flapping their tiny winds furiously and still they are also beautiful.

When I think about these things at face value I’m joyful. I love the beauty of nature. But if I ask myself to look for a higher meaning it might look something like this: beautiful things in nature make me happy. Nevertheless, these things aren’t random. Heavenly Father made a beautiful world to live in because he loves us. And honestly, when something beautiful touches me the most, the thought that comes to mind is ‘thank you’. I want to thank The Creator for such a beautiful world. And if my heart wants to say thank you, then there must be someone to thank, right? This is why I’ll never be an atheist.

I love watching people at the grocery store or at the park. You may or may not think this at first glance. But people do good deeds all the time. It’s kind of sad that it often goes unnoticed. I’ve seen people pick up trash that doesn’t belong to them and throw it away. I love watching big kids push little kids on the swings on the playground. I’ve had a stranger pay for my food at the drive-through. And I recently watched a tall man grab something off a tall shelf for a lady at the store. These are simple acts of kindness, right? But they add up. When I look for the higher meaning it might look like this: simple acts of kindness happen all the time. Nevertheless, even though these acts are simple they are a reminder that we are all connected and everyone makes a difference.

So the challenge this week is to maybe spend some time in the scriptures looking for the verses with ‘nevertheless’. Or next time you are frustrated, or even feeling pretty happy take a moment to look at what the bigger picture might be. You might think of ‘nevertheless’ as an opportunity to do an inward double take. Don’t take things at face value. Look for a higher meaning. When you do take the time, it will make your life that much more vibrant.

Take care, my friends. Live The Vibrant Life!