PROVO, Utah — The truth about Latter-day Saint women “seems to be in short supply these days,” Sheri Dew, executive vice president and chief content officer of Deseret Management Corp., told a crowd of Latter-day Saint women and others gathered Thursday, April 30, for BYU Women’s Conference.
“There isn’t anything all that secret about most of our lives,” Sister Dew continued as the crowd of listeners sitting inside the BYU Marriott Center roared.
This is “why most of us wouldn’t make very compelling reality TV,” she said. “But maybe you’ve noticed that there isn’t much reality in reality TV.”
Hollywood seems fixated on portraying millions of smart, talented, accomplished, devoted and chaste Latter-day Saint women as women who are “secretly petty, promiscuous and preoccupied with flaunting their covenant-breaking,” she said. But these things aren’t true.
“Sisters, it should not surprise us that the adversary is taking direct aim at the women whom the Lord is counting on the most: His covenant daughters,” Sister Dew said.
Sister Dew focused her remarks at the women’s conference on three spiritual habits to help Latter-day Saint women and others maintain spiritual equilibrium through “ears that hear and eyes that see” in an unstable world.
The lives, voices and examples of faithful Latter-day Saint women are the “greatest rebuttal to Hollywood’s insanity,” Sister Dew taught.
When silence is ‘no longer a virtue’
Sister Dew, who has attended most of the latest 49 BYU Women’s Conferences, said “testifying of truth” is one spiritual habit that helps cultivate ears and eyes that hear and see “what is important, what is right and what is true.”
“I wonder if we realize how impactful, even life-changing, our testimonies can be,” Sister Dew told listeners. “Imagine what would happen if more than 8 million of us were regularly looking for opportunities to bear witness of what we know to be true.
“We would change the world.”
Sister Dew said bearing witness can take many forms: conversations, service and one’s example as a faithful Latter-day Saint.
“Words have power, and prophets have urged us to become articulate in testifying of truth,” she said. “If you feel uncomfortable expressing what you believe, can I invite you to practice?”
Sister Dew quoted early Latter-day Saint women’s leader Eliza R. Snow, who said: “There is a point at which silence is no longer a virtue.”
“Sisters, we are at that point,” Sister Dew said, urging Latter-day Saint women today to use the power with which they have been endowed.
Seeking truth among half-truths
Another spiritual habit to maintaining spiritual equilibrium is to seek truth, Sister Dew told listeners.
“I submit to you that the very definition of a woman of light is a woman who has ears to hear and eyes to see what is important, what is true and what is right,” she said.
Sister Dew explained that Satan, the “father of lies,” is highly skilled at deception and has “more tools of distraction at his disposal today than ever before.”
She also said that one of the greatest threats to maintaining spiritual balance is “choosing to listen to people who have mastered the art of the half-truth.”
What is the antidote to such a threat? The late Church President Russell M. Nelson pleaded with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to let God prevail and give Him a “fair share” of their time, Sister Dew said. Current Church President Dallin H. Oaks has emphasized the need to cultivate the guiding influence of the Holy Ghost.
“Immersion in truth is the only antidote to the deception placed throughout the secular drilling we consume daily,” Sister Dew added.
Hearkening to truth
A third spiritual habit to maintain spiritual equilibrium is hearkening to truth, Sister Dew taught.
The word “hearken” is the first to appear in the Doctrine and Covenants, and it means more than just listening, she said. Hearkening means listening “with the intent to obey.”
“Hearkening to truth, meaning acting on the truth we’ve sought to find, opens our ears and eyes to more truth,” Sister Dew said.
She then acknowledged this can, at times, be a challenge, saying: “One stumbling block that keeps us from hearkening to truth is our unwillingness to put God first.”
“I’m imagining,” she continued, “that we have each failed at times to put the Lord first.
“I have, though I don’t know why I ever let it happen, because things go better when I make Him the center of everything I do.”
The Lord’s “math is different than ours,” Sister Dew said. “When we give him even some of our time, it seems like he multiplies the rest, while also dividing our sorrows, our anxiety and our grief.”
