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Using Friction to Grow: Robin Ritch

Plus - a special announcement about Restore this year!

Today we’re delighted to share a conversation with Robin Ritch about her new book, Using Friction to Grow: Stories of Strength and Resilience.

Many of us spend our lives trying to avoid friction. We want our faith to feel clear, our communities to feel supportive, and our spiritual lives to move forward without too much tension or uncertainty. But today Robin’s asking, “What if our deepest growth comes not in spite of friction, but because of it?”

And that’s at the heart of her book. Through interviews with a remarkable generation of Latter-day Saint women—many of them grandmothers now—Robin uncovers stories of faith, resilience, and spiritual maturity that feel so relevant today. These women faced difficult questions, competing loyalties, and real tension between their deepest convictions and the world around them. Yet rather than allowing that friction to diminish their faith, they used it to deepen their relationship with God and expand their capacity to serve.

Robin herself has spent a career building and leading transformative organizations, including at Microsoft, Intel, and most recently as President and Publisher of Deseret News. But this book grew out of a lifelong fascination with women’s spiritual lives and the wisdom that can be found in their stories.

Whether you’re currently navigating friction in your own faith journey or simply looking for examples of courage and grace, we think you’ll find this conversation both reassuring and inspiring.

You can buy your copy of Using Friction to Grow on Bookshop.org!

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