Nevertheless

Today I woke up and my laptop was not turning on. I drove a friend who just had surgery to campus and looked for a handicap parking spot for 40 min. My classes were hard. It was freezing rain outside. It was only DAY THREE and things weren't looking as great as I hoped.

Fast forward a few hours and I'm in my Book of Mormon class. We are ready 1 Nephi chapter 1 verse 1...

"1 I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father; and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days."

We placed emphasis on the 'nevertheless' and Nephi's purpose in using it. He is basically saying "all these bad things have happened, nevertheless, god is real, and he loves me and thats more important than the bad things that happened to me." Nephi had a lot of bad stuff happen to him but he chose to see the good things, he chose to see the blessings.
In class we used the 'greater than sign' to represent nevertheless. Like this...

Its raining today < I have an umbrella and a car to drive in and appropriate warm clothing.

This was really exactly what i needed to hear. I started to list off all the "bad things" that were happening today and changed them into 'nevertheless' statements.

My laptop wont turn on, nevertheless, I have a car and can drive to an Apple store thats not too far
School is so hard, nevertheless, I have been blessed to go to an amazing university where I can grow and learn and be stretched to become someone better.
Parking on campus is a pain, nevertheless, YOU HAVE A CAR. be happy.
Everything seems to never go my way, nevertheless, god has a better plan for you.

You get the idea... After I did it though I really was so much happier. I saw all the blessings that I had in my life and all the things in front of my 'neverthelesses' became so small and insignificant. Being positive and really looking, searching for gods hand in your life will make you so much happier.

So next time everything seems to fall apart, just take a look at all the 'neverthelesses' you have.