The personal story of Sheri Dew’s greatest regret in life that she will never forget. A great example of how self-doubt, one of Satan’s most powerful tools, can cause each of us to not live up to our potential. 

This story comes from a Deseret News article, entitled Sheri Dew: Living the Unexpected Life, by Doug Robinson. You can find the full article by clicking HERE. 

This is what it says:

To this day…one of her biggest regrets…[that has left] a gaping hole in her life [was] left by her one true love.

Basketball.

She wanted to be a college basketball player. Perhaps there was no place, besides a chapel, that she was more comfortable or confident than on a basketball court. There, the girl who longed to be petite and pretty discovered her size was no longer a curse, but a blessing. She was a star player in basketball-crazy Kansas at a tiny high school,…averaging 23 points and 17 rebounds a game. She had a hook shot, a post-up move, a jump shot, and she could move under the basket to get free for shots.

“With all the modesty I can muster, I was good,” she says. “I haven’t seen many girls who could play basketball at that age who were as good as I was.”

But this was in the late ’60s and ’70s, when there were few opportunities for girls to play college basketball. She chose to attend BYU and planned to try out for the school’s basketball team.

On the day of tryouts, she reported to the Richards Building, opened the gym door a crack, peeked at the players inside and the confidence drained right out the bottom of her shoes. She couldn’t make herself step through the door. She thought she could work up her courage if she paced the hallway outside the gym for a while. She walked back and forth — for three hours.

She never did enter the gym. When the tryout ended, she walked slowly to her dorm, castigating herself for not having the guts to try out.

“It’s one of my biggest regrets,” she says. “I’ve never gotten over it.”

…Jump ahead to last autumn. BYU athletic director Elaine Michaelis, who coached the basketball team when Dew was a student, invited Dew to speak to the school’s female athletes. Dew told the above story for the first time in her life, one she hadn’t even confided to her family. Her point was that these athletes were doing something she had wanted to do, but lacked the courage to try.

Afterward, Michaelis told Dew, “I remember my 1971 team really well. You know why? We played all season one player short. I tried to fill my roster, and I couldn’t. That year I was looking for a tall center who could post up.”

Sitting in her office, Dew finishes this story and says, “I felt as if I had been kicked in the stomach when she told me that. That was supposed to be my spot on the team. You mean out of 25,000 students they couldn’t find one girl who could fill that spot?!”

“The truth is, nobody can take your place. That was a very interesting lesson. I thought I was good, but I’ll never know. My fear and shyness paralyzed me. My whole life I’ve felt like I didn’t quite measure up.”

Even one of the most accomplished and respected women of the church has struggled with self-doubt. It happens to all of us. Doubting ourselves is one of Satan’s biggest lies and greatest tools that he uses against us.

I really love what Kevin J Worthen said in a BYU Devotional called Fear Not. In it he said:

“I am convinced that just as we have articles of faith, Satan and his minions must have articles of fear to aid them in their work. They might read something like this: “We believe that the first principles of despair and damnation are doubt God, doubt yourself, doubt others, and, most of all, be afraid—be very afraid of the future.” 

But let us not forget what President Monson has taught us:

“Remember that faith and doubt cannot exist in the same mind at the same time, for one will dispel the other.” (For his full talk, click HERE)

To learn more about how you can fight back against the lies of self-doubt that Satan puts in your mind, check out Episode 6: Doubt Not of my Teach Me to Walk in the Light Podcast. I discuss 7 ways you can combat those negative thoughts. Click HERE

Be sure and check out some of Sheri L. Dew’s books on Amazon:

These books and more by Sherri L. Dew are also available on Deseret Bookshelf Plus. Try it for FREE for 30 days. Click HERE.

Yours Truly,

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