LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" - Inspirational LDS Stories

Faith in The Church Today: Sheri, Shane, & Dusty's Stories - Latter-Day Lights (Faith to Stay Part 1 of 5)

• Scott Brandley and Alisha Coakley

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How do you keep your faith strong in the world we live in today?

This Sunday, we kickoff a special 5-part miniseries called “Faith to Stay”, that discusses topics from Latter-Day Light's host and founder, Scott Brandley’s latest book on “strengthening faith during the storms of life.”

In episode 1, past guests Sheri Ramirez, Shane Baldwin, and Dusty Smith return to the show to share their eye-opening insights on the concept of “Faith in The Church Today.” Together, they tackle how faith crises' begin, how to rebuild a broken testimony, and what daily habits actually keep faith alive in today’s modern society.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re one storm away from letting go, this conversation is sure to remind you why it’s worth holding on.

*** Please SHARE Sheri, Shane, and Dusty’s stories and help us spread hope and light to others. ***

To WATCH this episode, visit: https://youtu.be/acndD6mysNc

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To READ Scott’s book “Faith to Stay,” visit: https://www.faithtostay.com/

To WATCH Sheri’s episode, visit: https://youtu.be/mml_j7nCFoA

To WATCH Shane’s episode, visit: https://youtu.be/rjRNgcMbi6M

To WATCH Dusty’s episode, visit: https://youtu.be/CcIixBh2aZc

To READ Shane's book "The Honest Lie," visit: https://www.amazon.com/Honest-Lie-How-Navigate-Matrix/dp/B0C9FXZZH9

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Keep updated with us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/latter.day.lights/

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/latterdaylights

Also, if you have a faith-promoting or inspiring story, or know someone who does, please let us know by going to https://www.latterdaylights.com and reaching out to us.

Scott Brandley:

Hey everyone, I'm Scott Brandley. Every member of the church has a story to share, one that can instill faith, invite hope and inspire others. On today's episode, we're discussing faith in the church today, what we can do to strengthen it and how we can help those who are struggling with their faith. Welcome to Latter-day Lights. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Latter-day Light. You probably noticed that this isn't our normal format. That's because, throughout this month, as part of my official book launch of my new book, faith to Stay, I'm actually doing a special five-part series, with each episode related to a different part of my book, and today is the first episode in that series, and the topic of our discussion is going to be faith in the church today. And with that being said, I've got some really cool guests that know a little bit about faith, and so I'd like to introduce you guys. So I'd like to introduce to the show Dusty Smith, sherry Ramirez and Shane Baldwin. How are you guys doing today?

Sheri Ramirez:

Good.

Dusty Smith:

Just pinching.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah well. So, like I just said before we got started, this is kind of like a reunion, because we've been doing the show now for three years, which is crazy, but we've never had people come back on and just have a discussion like this. So this is really unique. And to get started on the topic of faith, I want to give a little bit of background on your guys' stories Now. We'll put links in the show notes to each one of your guys' episodes, so if anybody wants to learn more about your stories, they can go and do that. But to kind of kick it off, you've each had some incredible experiences in your life Tragedy, loss, hope, redemption. There's a lot of really interesting things that have happened here. So, just to start off, I'll start off with Sherry, and you can correct me if this is wrong, but this is what I remember from our episode. So you got married when you were 18, right?

Sheri Ramirez:

19. So close.

Scott Brandley:

Okay, you're 19. And then you found out that your husband-to-be had chronic liver failure.

Sheri Ramirez:

Chronic kidney disease Yep Close.

Scott Brandley:

I'm close. It's been a minute During that time. So the time you were married, you were dealing with that right and going through a lot.

Sheri Ramirez:

Yeah, I learned what dialysis was, so it was quite a lot.

Scott Brandley:

And then he unfortunately died suddenly when you were 22.

Sheri Ramirez:

Yep, yep. He dropped me off at work and he didn't come back, so that was the day he had a brain aneurysm. So we were married for about three and a half years at that point.

Scott Brandley:

Okay, and then you ended up getting remarried, yes, and now you have kids and doing the thing right.

Sheri Ramirez:

Yeah, yeah, we're the taxi mom, my teacher, my husband's deaf, so I've learned sign language and he actually was the one that I met first before.

Scott Brandley:

Right.

Sheri Ramirez:

Husband that had passed away. So yeah, it was a full circle there.

Scott Brandley:

Awesome, all right, so we got Sherry. We Awesome, all right, so we got Sherry. We got Shane, shane Baldwin. This was quite the story. It was well. I'll kind of tell a little bit of what I remember. So you basically had everything that the world had to offer and you're doing incredibly well in the financial world and then you ultimately lost it all, including your wife, right? You got divorced.

Shane Baldwin:

Right.

Scott Brandley:

And then went to prison for five years and I remember. The one of the things that I really remember in your story is you talked about all these different ways that you could kill yourself because you didn't want to keep going and you starved yourself for 13 days, Was it?

Shane Baldwin:

13 days and I felt amazing after 13 days, so, so clearly um. Killing myself was not not, I couldn't even starve myself.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah, and then you kind of went through that, through that experience, you had kind of a vision or a dream, right.

Shane Baldwin:

Right.

Scott Brandley:

And it gave you some different options in your life that you could take and you chose a hard option and kind of had that redemption through prison and helped a lot of people to come closer to God, right.

Shane Baldwin:

Right. Sometimes we think, boy, I wish I could go back and do that differently. And you come to find out that the best path for us is the one that you're currently on. And so we all chose our, our paths for a different reason, and we need to, I guess, own our experience and that path and recognize that it was all for our experience and all for our gain.

Scott Brandley:

Right, yeah. And then you wrote a book of your experience called the honest lie.

Shane Baldwin:

That's right.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah, so we'll put that in the show notes as well.

Shane Baldwin:

I came on your podcast before I had my own podcast, so and and you guys didn't cancel me, so I really appreciate that, because I had gone on other podcasts and I just shared my story and it wasn't up for 24 hours and they turned it off because of all the negative comments. I think it's because I look like a Disney villain character and so, for whatever reason, they just turned me off. So I appreciate you guys allowing my story to stay up and, yeah, you guys inspired me to say, hey, this podcasting can really impact people in a positive way and coming on your show, I had a lot of people that messaged me about my story and it really inspired me to do what I'm doing right now with Zion Media. So I appreciate that, scott.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah, you bet man. Then we've got Dusty Smith. Dusty, your story is pretty incredible too. You joined the church as a convert, and you were in your early 20s right 23, yes. Okay, right, went on a mission, came back and then ended up leaving the church and fighting against the church for 26 years and then, through a series of incredible events, you ended up coming back and now you defend the faith right, you can call them miracles, it's okay, okay yeah, I man.

Scott Brandley:

I've told people you're all of your guys stories. In fact, one of the things I do when I finish a podcast, I'll go out into the living room and I'll tell my kids and my wife the stories that that we hear. It's so much fun, wow so that's kind of the background.

Sheri Ramirez:

Oh, go ahead that's amazing of the background. Oh, go ahead. That's amazing. I love that you guys can share that with each other.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah, it's kind of a bonding experience for my family. Honestly, it's been really cool. So let's jump into the topic, which is faith in the church today and the way I started my book out. Kind of my background to this whole thing is that when I was a bishop back in 2014, I had two families leave the church and the first family that left the church totally floored me.

Scott Brandley:

I was just a brand new bishop, maybe for a couple months, and they talked about the church essays that had just come out back then and I went and read them all in one night to try to help this couple to stay in the church and I ended up having a faith crisis of my own and it was pretty scary, because one of the things about our faith is that it's ingrained into everything we do, every decision we make, all of our friends, our social circles, even the kind of jobs we do. I mean, it's it's very ingrained into our lives and I remember thinking what happens if this isn't true? How does how, what does my life look like, and? But ultimately I was able to overcome that and that's kind of how I overcame. That is part of my book, so that's kind of my background to that. But as we get into this topic of faith in the church, the first question I want to throw out there is why do you guys think faith in general is so important in our lives? Why is it important to have faith?

Dusty Smith:

Well, if you don't have faith, then there's no reason. If you don't have reason, then what's the point? And that's pretty simplistic. But faith is what you've got to have faith in something, and it might be faith in your family, faith in your wife that causes you to get up every morning and have that good marriage, faith in your job that you're going to have a job tomorrow. So faith is the starting point of almost everything we do. But to give your life purpose you have to have faith. To not have faith, I can't imagine what it would be like to not have faith in God, because then your life really does not have a purpose and you have no hope for anything past death. And what a terrible existence that would be.

Scott Brandley:

When you fell away from the church. How did that? When you're talking about having purpose, what happened in your life?

Dusty Smith:

Well, okay, so many people who leave the church become they claim to become atheist. Ok, I don't. Again, I don't believe in atheism. I think to say there is no God, as an atheist would say, to know that that there is no God means you are a God to know that. So it kind of defeats the purpose of being an atheist to say that there is no God, because then you become a God. I think the best you can say is you don't believe there's a God, but regardless, I never did that. I stayed. I always believed in God. So I never lost my faith in God. I lost my faith in what I thought was an evil church. Um, and I was Catholic for ever until I came back to the church.

Scott Brandley:

Gotcha Shane, what you're going to say, something.

Shane Baldwin:

Yeah, I mean, I mean faith is the first principle of the gospel and I mean it's the, it's the reason we take action. For me I have this bracelet on. This is a. I got this. Uh, this was before prison, this bracelet, and on this bracelet it says faith.

Shane Baldwin:

And when I went to prison, they, they take everything from you, I mean everything. They took this bracelet from me and and I faith is so important to me I want to be reminded of it every day. So literally, these guys in prison would grab uh garbage bags and they would cut them into these little skinny strips and then they would braid garbage bags together and they would use color pencil to dye some of the garbage bag. And I paid somebody in prison with with ramen noodles to make me a bracelet that said faith. And the whole time I was in prison I wore that, that bracelet of faith.

Shane Baldwin:

And I, uh, when I got out, I put this bracelet on with my other bracelet and I, I said once, um, once that bracelet that was made for me in prison out of this garbage bag falls off, then I know that that my face, faith has now become sufficient and it fell off a couple of years ago, and so I feel like, okay, I'm getting there, I'm making progress with my faith. This one still stays on because I still have to continue to exercise that faith muscle. But faith is extremely important. As Dusty said, it's the starting point of all action. Without faith, you wouldn't have any purpose.

Scott Brandley:

Wow.

Sheri Ramirez:

Yeah, I do. I want to add to that. I think, for everything that's been said is so truly beautiful. When I think of faith and when I think of the life that I've lived, I feel like for me, faith is also the faith of how much love God has for me and also the love that comes from other people, having faith that, as we endure, our worth is always there, the faith that we came from God and his light is inside of us.

Sheri Ramirez:

I think that struggle has always been so raw for me at every single phase of my life, distinguishing that worth and worthiness are two entirely different things. Our worth can never be taken. That was given to us, and I think so many women feel like they have to prove themselves to the world, and so having faith is such a deep seed that you have to really plant and nourish every single day, because it's so easy to forget how much love he has and having the faith that he's there and that his love is really the only one that matters the most. But we live in a world of social media and being online, with so many attacks and judgment and people, and even in our everyday lives, I think faith is just kind of that seed that lets everything flourish. So as long as you're planting that seed of faith and everything in your life in every aspect, I feel like that's what you get to hold on to.

Scott Brandley:

Okay, okay. Well, that kind of ties into that. You said social media, and that kind of brings up my next question, because I think this is related. There's a lot of distractions in the world today and there's a lot of members that are having faith issues and a lot that are even leaving the church. Why do you think members are having so many faith issues today?

Shane Baldwin:

Listen, we have so much information out there right now and when you stop reading the Book of Mormon and you start reading other things, it can create a faith crisis.

Shane Baldwin:

And I tell everybody that comes to me that's having a faith crisis.

Shane Baldwin:

I'm like, how often are you reading the book of Mormon and for how long?

Shane Baldwin:

Every day, and most of the time it's like, well, I haven't been reading the book of Mormon. And I'm like, well, what are you reading? And they're reading stuff online and I'm like, okay, do this for me, quit reading this stuff online and for the next 30 days, just read the book of Mormon for 30 minutes for the next 30 days and then come back to me and tell me if you're still struggling and having this faith crisis every single time. For every single person that's willing to do that, their faith crisis seems to be fixed. But for a lot of them, they're unwilling to go back to the first works the book of Mormon and because they're something that is, in their mind, more interesting online with what somebody else is saying or they're watching some podcast or they're reading something, and they got to get back to the scriptures in my mind. I know Dusty has something on this, because he's doing firesides all over the place and he's probably interacting with people that their children are dealing with this challenge.

Dusty Smith:

I get this question quite a bit. The problem that we have is that people tend to get wrapped around the axle about things that they shouldn't get wrapped around the axle about. And I tell people go back to the basics, because what you find and you ask people, okay, so why are you having trouble? Well, I read this about the church that Joseph Smith did this back when he married a Fanny Alger or something like that. You know it's this stuff and I would tell people number one you cannot, cannot, it's not fair and it should never happen that you judge people in the 1800s using your 2025 moral goggles. You can't do that because and you better hope that no people 20 years, 200 years from now, don't judge you with their moral goggles, because they're going to find things about us they didn't like. So go back to the basics and I tell people did Joseph Smith have the first vision? Yes, did he interpret the Book of Mormon? Yes, after that, what else really matters, truly, what else really matters? So, go back to the basics.

Dusty Smith:

Don't let the things you don't know overcome the things that you do know. As Elder Uchtdorf said, don't let your doubts overcome your faith. Go back to the basics and pray. A testimony is like a living organism If you don't feed it and water it, it will die. If you feed it the wrong things, it will die. So you have to take care of your testimony. You have to take care of your faith. And it goes back to the faith that Sherry was talking about, that faith that just guides you.

Scott Brandley:

If you got to go back to that, yeah, I mean when I, when I had my faith crisis, the thing that brought me back? I went on a lot of walks during that time trying to figure it out. The thing that brought me back is I had this impression in in my mind. To break down my faith into its most basic, fundamental pieces, like you're saying, Dusty, and I came up with five at the time Is God real? Is Christ the Savior of the world? Is Joseph Smith a prophet? Is the Church of Jesus Christ true? And is the Book of Mormon true? And I had to build that back up piece by piece but, like you said, those fundamentals make all the difference.

Sheri Ramirez:

And then I just want to add to that I think, dusty, what you're talking about, that living organism, it's whatever you're feeding it. That was exactly on point with what I was thinking too. I feel like it's so easy to be in the busy world, and it's so easy to be in the busy world and it's so easy to click into an app and you just start scrolling and it's so mindless that you lose track of time, and this will probably happen every single day for most people. Or you're posting something, and so it's this constant feeding of yourself, of the world, and getting that connection with other people, because that's what I do sometimes and I get caught in that trap. And then I realized what I'm doing and I'm like, well, what's the most basic, essential, important thing in my life? And that's my family. But what am I doing? I'm scrolling on my phone, trying to get information and feeding myself whatever comes from my phone.

Sheri Ramirez:

So I think a lot of people just do that out of habit, whatever comes from my phone. So I think a lot of people just do that out of habit. But a habit for me is not usually clicking into the Book of Mormon app, so I feel like that's something that could be a good challenge, like Shane was talking about, how he said the 30 days about you go and read the Book of Mormon for 30 days. That's an amazing way to break it down, because sometimes it feels overwhelming. I feel overwhelmed to read old English and to read the scripture sometimes, but when I plan a lesson to teach my teenagers for Sunday school, I'm like, okay, it's not that complicated. So then it's kind of like breaking it down for me. So I think sometimes it's important to maybe set small goals so that you can feed that organism with the right things.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah, that makes sense. The second family that left the church when I was a bishop. One of the reasons they left is because they got distracted and they started looking at other sources, which is you guys have kind of all mentioned Like, once you get distracted, you look at other sources other than the scriptures or or the prophets. It's easy to get caught up in the world, you know. Ok, let's go on to the next one. How has your life been affected by the trials that you've had to go through? Your faith? How's your faith been affected by the trials you've had to go through?

Dusty Smith:

Well, I will tell you that there is no scarier words that you will ever hear than when the doctor says you've got cancer, and that that that rocked my world. I mean, I got the news the first week of January of 22. And my first thought was I'm not going to have to do New Year's resolutions. You know, I don't think that I would have been able to get through cancer and I'm still not through it. I have all kinds of radiation after effects, but I don't think I would have been able to get through cancer if not for my faith. I don't think I would have been able to get through cancer if not for my faith. You know, I would pray and I would say Heavenly Father, I know you have the power to heal me, but your will be done. I gave it up to him and said if it's my time, it's my time, but your will be done.

Dusty Smith:

And the Lord brought me through cancer and and watched, you know, took care of the surgeons as they operated on my throat and my, my neck, and and I, if you have, if you have that faith, you never, I never once felt, I never asked why me? I always said why not me? I always said why not me? When you have that faith, you take your personal out of it and you give it to him and therefore you don't have that blaming, I'm blaming God. Someone said, well, why did God give you cancer? Well, god didn't give me cancer, he brought me through cancer. And when my grandson died a couple of years ago, people said why did God take your grandson? And my words were he didn't take my grandson, he welcomed my grandson. You know. So if you have that faith, it can take you through anything, but you just got to give it to God. But you just got to give it to God.

Shane Baldwin:

Wow, I know for me. I was going through my tribulation and I remember reading the story of Joseph, who got sold into Egypt, who was in prison, and as I read his whole story I thought to myself, man, if he can rise from this pit, so can I. And that story of him helped me have faith that I was exactly where I needed to be. And as soon as I figured out that the way to get myself out of my tribulation is to help somebody else out of theirs, the whole shift happened for me, and it allowed me in prison to, instead of saying oh, poor me, I was instead helping and serving other people get out of their pit, which pulled me out of mine.

Scott Brandley:

This is so fun, which pulled me out of mine. This is so fun. It's just incredible to hear your guys' different experiences and how you viewed faith and your trials in your lives. How about you, sherry?

Sheri Ramirez:

I feel like mine's ongoing. I don't really feel like there's a beginning or an end, but I did choose into infidelity with my first husband and that was pretty heartbreaking because we were at the point where I had chosen into infidelity not sexual, but it was still physical and emotional and then he passed and it was pretty devastating to know that we were not going to go on that journey together being able to heal. But I did learn of Christ better when I learned that I can still have those healing conversations with my first husband and I really truly feel like a lot of my faith comes from my husbands. They really truly teach me a lot that I just have this selfishness in me and I think that was kind of taught to me from the adults when I was young. But being able to heal with my first husband through multiple conversations, I just feel like going through that veil is just so pure and it's so hard to describe. But when you could feel that and connect with someone on the other side, there's just the love that he has is what I'm going to say my first husband, that love that was inside of him, that he has for me, and the grace and the forgiveness and the repentance. I can't tell you how many times multiplied that would be coming from Christ. So, being able to feel it from a human that I was able to have you know my journey with, I can only imagine how much love Christ has for everybody. Only imagine how much love Christ has for everybody. So I think that's my reminder every day.

Sheri Ramirez:

When I get into that selfish mindset of like I got to take care of myself and make sure you know that I have all my needs met as the main provider in my home, all the time I always feel like my cup is depleted. So I just feel like the trials come every day. But the bigger trials, you know, have been in the past, as I also chose into emotional infidelity with my current husband and he chose to stay with me. So that is just such a testament to the strength of God and his love that he has for his children that my husband would choose to stay with somebody you know who was not faithful.

Sheri Ramirez:

That's extremely hard for someone to stick with just because it's easy to get divorced. These days I feel like back, you know, in my parents' time. It wasn't as simple, but it truly is, and I feel like our world does teach us about how easy it is to get divorced and how fun and exciting it seems. But it's not such a simple answer and there's just so many complexities with every relationship and so, whatever way it went and whatever way my husband chose who I'm currently with, I just have seen the love that he's given me, so I feel like that's a true Testament to God reaching out, telling me like there's so much more beyond this life. We have to do the best that you can and be as faithful and repent now.

Scott Brandley:

Yeah, I think we do have big. There's big things that happen in our lives that really test our faith and you guys have had some of those really big moments. But there are, like you said, sherry, there's it's kind of an ongoing battle. Right when you think you've got it, then God throws you a curve ball and you're like oh, I don't got it.

Sheri Ramirez:

Every time it then God throws you a curveball and you're like, oh, I don't got it Every time.

Scott Brandley:

So I guess the next question would be how do you keep your faith strong today? What are there things that you do to keep going, to keep building your faith as you go on in life?

Dusty Smith:

building your faith as you go on in life. I think we've talked about that. I think that we talked about reading the scriptures, praying, going to church, being a part of that church family, doing the things that going to the temple, you know, doing the things that we have been taught that will increase our faith, strengthen our faith and sometimes it's not so much increasing it as it is strengthening it, because you're going to get beat down sometimes and if you're not prepared for those spiritual battles look, when I left the church back in 89, I was not prepared for a spiritual battle. I wasn't physically prepared, mentally prepared, emotionally prepared. I was in law school. I wasn't prepared for that. We have to do those things that we talked about to strengthen and feed our testimonies and our faith. Faith in order to be prepared when life does send its cancers or its prisons or its death or its loss. If your testimony or faith is weak, then you have a risk of that being shattered when something really really terrible comes up.

Sheri Ramirez:

I think for me it's also checkpoints. I ruminate in my head and I often get stuck in spiraling thoughts, and so this happens every day. If I get a negative comment on my platform, I will spiral and think they're attacking my character. It's really hard for me still years later. But I have people who I check in with and sometimes I'm like, hey, I'm spiraling, so I know exactly who to go to when I feel stuck, because it really takes people for me to be able to dissect through that. But the other thing that I've been doing recently is I go on Google and I will type in general conference talks and then like a keyword like divine worth and like it'll pull up the most beautiful talks. It's like God speaking to me through the internet, good things feeding my soul, and then I get to click and it's like that's where I get hooked and it's way better than scrolling. So that's been my new like scroll addiction, but it's been a good one. So I really like that piece of it, cause I don't connect as well reading the scriptures.

Scott Brandley:

That's a good idea.

Shane Baldwin:

Yeah, I listen, I know, I know. For me, uh, one of the greatest blessings has been I mean, I've filmed a three podcast today of the greatest blessings has been I mean, I've filmed three podcasts today. And so for me, being able to share the gospel and do missionary work through interviewing people or talking to people or have a podcast. I have a guy I meet with at seven o'clock every morning. He lives in I don't know Monticello or somewhere crazy, but he and I get on at seven o'clock in the morning and right now we're studying the book of Malachi. We just finished the book of revelation.

Shane Baldwin:

So I try to find opportunities for me to interact with other people. And what I find is, as I help other people build their faith, it builds my faith. And so I'm constantly looking for opportunities to do that, because I've noticed, when I'm not doing that, when I'm not helping other people build their faith, my faith diminishes some. And I've noticed and it's true even if for those of us who have been on a mission man, our faith is so strong and so powerful during that time because we are helping other people with their faith. And so, if you want to increase your faith, help others, increase theirs and it increases yours, and it's a really cool thing that we can do to increase our faith by helping others increase theirs.

Scott Brandley:

Wow, I love that. Yeah, I think that doing this podcast has been a huge blessing in my life and really helped me with my faith, definitely get a different perspective and have more empathy for people, for what they're going through and the struggles. And I don't cry, but Alicia does all the time. I feel it inside, but the tears just don't come out of my eyes. I don't know what it is side, but the tears just don't come out of my eyes. I don't know what it is. Yeah, all right, so this has been awesome. Thank you guys so much for your time. I want to kind of end it on what. Well, kind of leave it up to you. What would you guys want to share with people that are struggling with their faith? Just from your personal experiences in life, what's the thing that you'd like to share to help people that are struggling?

Shane Baldwin:

Sherry, I feel like you got something.

Sheri Ramirez:

I do, but I'm trying to formulate it, I'll get it out. Okay, I feel like, as a woman, I constantly compare myself and so I die inside of comparison every single day, like truly suffocate myself. So I feel like a lot of people, a lot of women, especially being on social media. You just compare yourself and you think, well, why can't I do this, why am I not better, why am I not not, not, not, not. So you get into this spiral and it's super easy because you're constantly being thrown different things all day long. So it really takes a lot of strength to ground yourself. But I feel like the world grounding yourself is different than spiritually grounding yourself, feel like the world grounding yourself is different than spiritually grounding yourself. So I feel like there's a fine balance of being able to pick from both but also really touching on that spirituality and connection with Christ, because you can ground yourself, you know and be present, and it can feel nice, but it doesn't last and I have learned that that is super important to remember my worth by grounding myself and doing different things like listening to general conference talks or communicating. Hey, I need like 30 minutes to myself today, or else I'm just not going to be nice. So being able to communicate has been important for me as a woman, learning that that is crucial for me to not burn out. So I think when you do take that time for yourself, feed yourself positively and nourish yourself, especially in faith, uplifting material, because it's so easy to just scroll for that 30 minutes if you choose to, but then you're still going to feel depleted and you have to go on with your weeks and take care of your kids, usually if you have kids. But that's my advice is to truly nourish yourself with something that's going to uplift you every single day and make sure that you really get that time to yourself, because it's easy to give everything away until you're depleted and then you don't know who you are anymore and you're just struggling. So that's my biggest piece of advice.

Sheri Ramirez:

And also to remember Tamara Runin in the April conference. I wrote it down because I'll forget Tamara Runin in the April conference. I wrote it down because I'll forget. She said worth isn't tied to obedience, it's constant and it's given to us by God. So that's been the biggest blessing after hearing her talk. It's different than worth, and so or worthiness sorry, worthiness is different than worth. So no one can take that from you. No matter what people think of you, what they say about you, your worth is from God. So that was just super resonating for me, as I live in the world. But I don't. I'm not in the world, so keeping myself grounded in that way, I love that.

Scott Brandley:

I love spiritual scrolling instead of doom scrolling.

Sheri Ramirez:

Yeah.

Scott Brandley:

It changes the dynamic. That's a really good insight. I'll go ahead. I'll go ahead and take this.

Shane Baldwin:

Okay, yeah.

Shane Baldwin:

So I think when we are having faith crises, we need to be open about it, we need to talk about it, and the first place to go is probably your heavenly father and go have an out loud conversation. Go on a walk, go on a hike and start asking God the questions that are resounding in your mind and start asking God for clarity and for answers. And whatever's not making sense for you or whatever's not clicking for you, or whatever doctrine you're struggling with or what you read you're struggling, go ask God, go be serious, go on a fast, go fast for two days, fast for three days and seek an answer from God and you will get an answer he has promised us. Ask and ye shall receive. And I know that's true. And even in a faith crisis it's hard because maybe you're struggling. Is God even there? Does God even hear me? Does God even know me?

Shane Baldwin:

And I promise, if you'll just exercise a little bit of faith and start having that conversation, that open communication with your heavenly father, you'll start to solve things and pay attention, not just when you're talking to God, but listen to the voice, as the voice speaks to you, give time for God to speak as well and sit there and you may think, oh well, is this just me talking? No, it's not. And sit there and you may think, oh well, is this just me talking? No, it's not. If you're asking a question, listen to that voice inside of your mind that is giving you answers.

Shane Baldwin:

Pay attention to the songs that come on as you're asking these questions, or whatever it is, because God is constantly trying to speak to us, if we're aware, and so I often tell people hey, go have an open conversation with God, share your frustration, share your challenges with your faith and seek answers there. But oftentimes we go and seek answers from other people that are having a faith crisis that we can commiserate with and you're going to get what you're looking for. But if you truly want truth and you really want to know if God is there and you're struggling with your faith or you're struggling with church history or whatever it is, take it to God. Go and take it to God and seek an answer and he will give you an answer.

Scott Brandley:

I love that.

Dusty Smith:

I think that when someone comes to me and they say I'm having a faith crisis, my response is usually that means you have faith, because you can't have a faith crisis if you don't have faith. So you have to pay more attention to the faith part of that and not the crisis part of that, because if you ask God to give you better, more faith and stronger faith, guess what that means? You're going to be tested OK. Your faith doesn't get stronger just because you go to go to bed and say give me stronger faith. You wake up next morning, go wow, I have stronger faith today. No, you're given those faith challenges to help build your faith.

Dusty Smith:

So when someone says I have a faith crisis, I tell them that means you have faith. You can't have a crisis of faith unless you have that faith. So lean on the faith part of that and not the crisis part of that. You have to give God a chance and give yourself a chance for that faith to grow and lean on him, lean on the word, lean on your friends. Call somebody. I get so many emails and messages from people just saying will you pray for me, will you pray with me? And I tell people all the time. Just give it to God. And they'll say, well, I can't sleep tonight, I couldn't sleep because I had. I say, well, give it to God, he'll be up all night anyway, you know. So it's it's, it's a. It's a matter of focusing on the faith and not on the crisis.

Scott Brandley:

Wow, man, I just feel so fortunate to be here and be with you guys. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and your time with me and with our viewers. It's a real treat and an honor for you guys to be here.

Dusty Smith:

honestly, I'm honored to have been asked. Thank you.

Scott Brandley:

Same Thanks for asking Well cool, that's a wrap, I think, for episode one. Um, make sure you go and check out, uh, dusty's book and shane's book. Sherry, you don't have a book, do you?

Sheri Ramirez:

not yet, maybe one day. Okay, I wrote it, but gotta get it published great.

Scott Brandley:

Hey, I submitted my book to Amazon last night at 1230. It was like a huge win. It was. It was a celebration.

Shane Baldwin:

Congratulations. When. When does it? When does it release? When's the release date?

Scott Brandley:

So officially, it's going to be on the 1st of June, which will be when this episode airs. So you guys, are kind of bringing it in advance, but it'll be on this day.

Shane Baldwin:

Awesome.

Scott Brandley:

Congratulations.

Dusty Smith:

Congratulations.

Scott Brandley:

So thanks again, guys. Also go check out my book Faith to Stay it's actually I'm giving away for free. So you can go get the digital version and the audio version on faithtostaycom and those are completely free. So you can go get the digital version and the audio version on faithtostaycom and those are completely free and hopefully they'll help to improve your faith and help others that are in need. So I'll leave that. Thanks again, guys, and we'll tune in next week for another episode of Latter-day Lights. Until then, take care, see ya.

People on this episode

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Scott Brandley

Host
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Alisha Coakley

Co-host