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[00:00:00] I've always loved primary songs, but it wasn't until I became a mom and felt the way that the spirit could completely change in our home.
When I turned them on that I felt somewhat overwhelmed by my gratitude for the composers of these beautiful songs. In addition to their ability to invite the spirit, I think any new parent who loves the gospel also feels the weight of the responsibility to teach children True doc. Trend and feels thankful for the help primary songs provide.
Shawna Edwards has written some of the most beloved children's songs in recent years, including The Miracle. Do You Have Room Risen and Restored? The most recent batch of hymns announced for the new hymn book. Includes Shawna's song because Shawna Edwards is the mother of five children who as an adult discovered a gif for songwriting.
Today she has over 143,000 subscribers on YouTube. Her music video of the Miracle has been viewed over 7 million times. But she would tell you many of her songs have been written for the one most in need, and it is clear that her greatest professional joy comes from hearing that they've impacted those ones all over the world.
This is all in an LDS Living podcast where we ask the question, what does it really mean to be all in the gospel of Jesus Christ? I'm Morgan Pearson, and I am. So honored to have Shawna Edwards on the line with me today. Shawna, welcome. Thank you, Morgan. It's great to be with you. Well, I, I'm gonna have to refrain from being a total fan girl during this interview because I have to tell you, Shawna, my I, so I have a 2-year-old and an eight month old.
And my 2-year-old when she was just little tiny, we would turn on your songs and it would always. Calm her down and it invited the [00:02:00] spirit into our home. And I have always loved primary songs, but something about having a baby and seeing the power of beautiful music, that testifies of Jesus Christ, it was honestly incredible to me.
And so I am a huge fan of you and I'm so grateful that you're willing to do this today. Well, it's an honor to be with you. Thank you. Well, I wanted to start out. You were at BYU and you were trying out for the cougars, and then you felt that that was not where you belonged. You got this distinct feeling that that wasn't where you belonged, and ultimately you ended up deciding to major in music.
And you said this, you said something to the effect of that meant giving up dancing in front of tens of thousands of screaming fans and instead spending hours. In the basement of the music building at BYUI wondered if we could start with, what have you learned about the value of the work that no one sees or applauds us for?
That's such a good question. I mean, honestly, I think that most of the important work that's done in the world. Is work that nobody sees or applauds us for. And I feel like many, many people live and die doing work that, that they don't get accolades for. I mean, you know, it's being a good parent, it's doing the right thing.
It's visiting a sick neighbor. It's getting on your knees to pray. Nobody's applauding that. And I think we need to remember that visibility doesn't equal value just because you're visible. Doesn't mean that what you are doing is really making a big difference in the world. We all have intrinsic worth that comes from our identity as children of God, and that's where the value really comes.
And you know, the flashy living in the limelight, [00:04:00] stuff that gets valued is cool, but it isn't usually what really makes the difference in the long run. If I had stayed in cougars. I would never have spent time in that practice room because there wouldn't have been time and I would never have majored in music and I would probably not be a songwriter.
And even in the process of songwriting, I look at it and I, I understand that people hear the end product, but they don't understand. All of the revisions I went through and all of the focusing on one word or one phrase, or trying to get, trying to squeeze out the, the absolute right words in, in a place.
But that though it doesn't get noticed is what makes the song good. And so we all do thankless tasks and honestly, you know, all of it. All of it is all of the things that are good. Are going to last, I think it was Boyd Kay Packer who said, nothing good is ever lost. And I love that because I love thinking about the fact that we can do something small that nobody sees, but that it can reverberate throughout the universe forever.
It's recorded in our, in our book in Heaven. The angels see it, and we never know what that one little, small, good thing can, can do to help other people because other people will pass it on. Nothing good is ever lost. So good. So good. I love that so much. So in, I think the best example of that is motherhood or, or parenthood.
Oh, for sure. In general, for sure. Um, I think it, it feels like so much is just not seeing, I, I always say, you know, you go from a, a job if you've worked a job before becoming a parent [00:06:00] where people are congratulating you or saying thank you for everything and. Motherhood is not like that. So for years, Shawna, you, you did end up majoring in music, but you did not graduate from BYU.
You married your husband and you were in quotes, just a mother. But you said, looking back that you can see how even the things that you did during motherhood have helped you with this songwriting career that you now have. Can you tell me a little bit about how you've seen that? Well, one thing is that I feel like anybody who's been a mother for any real length of time could literally be a professional chauffeur, a professional chef, a tutor, a therapist, a nurse, an event planner.
I mean, you know, the list goes on and on and on because motherhood entails so much varied. Things, but for me, I only ever wanted to be a mom. I never had a thought in my mind that I would have a career, and I was thankful to my husband for making it possible for me to just kind of live the dream. But when our kids were grown and gone, then I was like, I, there has to be something else.
I can't just fritter away my time. Now doing, doing nothing. And I'm not saying that people who don't have careers late in life are doing nothing. But I, I actually, this is kind of a funny little story. When our youngest son left on his mission and all the other kids were gone or married or in medical school or whatever, but when he left on his mission that summer, I bought.
Major League baseball ticket on the tv because I thought. Man, I'll have all this time. I'm, I'm gonna, I have something to do. [00:08:00] I'm sorry, I'm gonna watch baseball. And then, you know, I watched a few games and I was like, this is, this is dumb. This is not what I wanna be doing. And I had, I had just graduated, I was 50 years old and that's when, you know, my husband was like, Shawna, you know, you've got this music background, you love songwriting, you know that you're supposed to be doing this.
For heaven's sakes, start doing it. You know? So anyway, that, that's. That's, yeah, a general answer to your question, but I think one of the specific things is that as I raise children, I notice how they learn so differently. Some are visual learners, some really love to read, some just like they, they learn by hearing things.
Some memorize easily and, and some don't. And a lot of gospel principles are really abstract. And so I felt like if I could write engaging words that were visual. And then put together a video and put the words on the bottom. Then they, then children would have all these different ways of learning that song.
They'd be able to read it. They'd see the pictures, they'd hear it. And all the different kinds of learners could learn the concept of, for example, faith, because we talk about faith, but it's such a abstract principle. That sometimes the kids don't really know what that means. So, you know, I wrote this song about faith.
It's in every honest word we speak and every promise that we keep. And when we help a friend along the way, and, and these are things that we do that exhibit faith basically is, is what the song says. So I think specifically it was mostly just watching the way children learn. And the other thing might be that all of my children chose sports over music, which was, I love [00:10:00] sports, so it wasn't a bad thing, but I was a little sad that none of them really focused a lot on music.
And I wondered. Maybe there is a reason, maybe they, there's just not something compelling to them that makes them want to do music. And I noticed that in primary too, that I had a row of 11-year-old boys along the, back when I was primary coer, seven different times. There's a row of 11-year-old boys on the back that tip their chair back and they, a lot of them don't wanna sing.
So when I started writing. I told my husband I wanna write songs that the 11-year-old boys wanna sing. And we raised four boys and, and I knew exactly how they felt about some of the music. Well, first of all, I'm glad to know that you are a fellow sports lover. I also love sports, but I also love music and I love, I love hearing.
How you got started, Shawna? I think it's fascinating to hear because I think sometimes people very deliberately set out to I, this is what I wanna do, nothing can stop me from this thing that I wanna do, and then other times things seem to happen. In a way that could only be orchestrated by God. But I wanna touch on something and then I wanna hear kind of more about the story of how this all started for you.
But I, one thing that struck me as you're talking is that it was your husband nudging you along and saying, you know, this is something that you love. What do you, what has it meant to you to have a supportive spouse? I mean, I, I, I could talk the whole podcast about this subject because, and I, and when you say [00:12:00] orchestrated by God, I, I literally am like John is the perfect spouse for me.
He is been the perfect husband because he's actually really, really musical himself and he. I mean, at first he funded this whole process and he was willing to do that, which I was very grateful for. Right. But also, he makes every song better. Every single song. I literally should put his name alongside of mine on every coauthor.
Yeah. And he's, I tell people all the time, he is my biggest fan and he's also my most brutal critic. He is not afraid to say and has said many times. Um, I, I don't love that. Or on restored, my first version of Restored, do you know that song, Uhhuh? He said, you can do better. And I'm like, what? What's wrong?
And he said, I don't know, but I would just tell you to raise your sights on this song particularly. And the reason restored is what it is, and it's one of my favorites is because of John. So. It is just meant the world to me to have, he has the exact right temperament and when things go wrong, he is like, it doesn't matter, you know, just do the next one.
Just put out the next song. So I've loved that. I think that's so awesome. Um, I wanna go back to you. You didn't end up graduating because you and John got married, right? And so years later, you said at 50 is when you graduated with your right degree. Right. Hats off to you. I love that. But you, you finished what you started, and I imagine that there are probably a lot of people listening who may feel like, oh, it's too late for me.
That ship has [00:14:00] sailed. Or that they have, and maybe it's not school, maybe it's some kind of dream that they have. But what would you say to that person? I mean, I would probably say. Are you dead
then, then it's not too late. It's, it's not too late. We, we can, and I'm living proof of that, you know, I mean, I, I did put my first song on YouTube when I was 50 and I told this, this to it youth group a couple years ago, and there was a, I don't know, 12-year-old boy maybe, or 11 in the back on the background.
He raised his hand and said. How old are you
if this happened at 50? Yeah. Well, returning, yeah, this was just a few years ago that he said that, but, but the thing is, is that a lot of times when we're, when we get to be my age, when people get to be my age, they have more time. They have more availability. Their time is more their own. And honestly, I feel like I know so much that I didn't know when I was 30.
Hmm. You know, so there's, there's a, hopefully a little bit more maturity and wisdom, and I just feel like you're in a better position when you're older. And I, I, I would encourage anybody to, to, to go for it, even if it feels like, oh, that would never happen. I mean. Honestly, when John first said, put that on YouTube, I literally did not know what YouTube was.
YouTube was young, and I was like, what? I came a long way, but I, but I would just say, just start doing it for. Doing whatever it is that you want to do with and for the people you love. Right? Your family, your friends. Start small [00:16:00] and then build from there. That's how I started. I was thinking earlier, and this the way that you responded just now reminded me.
I, I think that that is something I've watched people. Of kind of like my mom's generation where they finish raising kids, and then it's like, well, what do I do now? And so when you were talking about the Major League baseball ticket, like that's, I think that it's literally like, well, my, my last kid just went away to school.
What do I do with all of this time that I have? And in many ways, motherhood is so all consuming that people don't have another hobby. So I love your story because. You are a great example of somebody who put everything that you had into raising your kids, but that wasn't the end of the story. And I think that that's important for people to not feel like their kids are grown.
That's the end. Or that it all just has to be being a grandparent and not that being a grandparent is bad. But I think that there just should, there should be many uses of time when you went back to school. Is that when you started writing songs, had you ever written songs before? Yeah, I'd written a few and mostly just like stuff for girls camp and Okay.
Little fun things like that. I, I had really only written a few. Okay. Yeah. So you go back to school, you start writing songs. Tell me a little bit about kind of getting to the point of putting that first song on YouTube. When I went back to school, I had been a piano major when I was young, Uhhuh, and I had to practice the piano in the basement of the Harris Fine Arts Center, RIP, the Harris Fine Arts Center, right?
No longer with us. Right. But like four hours a day in this tiny room. And I, I, I [00:18:00] knew that if I went home. I would not do the practicing. I lived at home, actually, we just lived a few minutes from campus, so it was easy. Okay. But I, I knew if I went home, I wouldn't do the practicing. So I stayed on campus all day.
I mean, I worked in the morning and then it was an all day thing. So I told, I got, they let me back into the music program, which was so kind. And I said, but I'm not practicing the piano four hours a day anymore. There's no point. And what can I major in? And so there were a couple of things and one of them was, uh, a major called, at the time, it's called Medium Music, but they've changed it to commercial music.
Okay. And songwriting was my first class and I loved it so much. And I had, I mean, I was. Older. I was old enough to be the mother of everybody in the class, and we had to, it was intimidating because he would give us a subject to write a song on. In fact, our very first assignment was, I'm gonna tell you a story the professor said, and then I want you to go home and write a song about the story.
And so I did that, and then you had to come back and sing and play that song for the whole class, which was super intimidating to me. But still, I loved writing and I wrote a whole bunch of things that I still use in my songwriting classes. I retook the class a couple of times. Okay. And then, and then before I could graduate, I had to do a, a recital of an hour of my own music, which I thought.
Was the best night of my whole life because, because I was playing with a band. I had a drummer and a, a couple of guitarists and, and I'm like, this is how to perform, because if you make mistakes, nobody can hear them because there's so much going on. But anyway, so it was after I graduated that I had a few songs and I had this song called Do You Have Room, which [00:20:00] was a Christmas song that John said, I think you should put that on YouTube.
And for the first few years I only did a couple of songs per year and after two years, I think, and maybe four songs, I had a whopping 30,000 views on my channel, which is nothing. I had had a couple of really bad experiences with, do you have Room? And it was like, I, I don't know if I wanna keep doing this, but John was just kept being really encouraging and saying, no, you need to, you need to keep doing this.
And all of the songs that I wrote in the first several years were songs for people in my life. The Miracle was a song for my primary More Than Enough was a song for my mother. Do you have Room was a song for my family and in, within every case I thought this song will never be heard outside this particular forum.
And, and then they just were, and I, I I, I, I tell people all the time, it was, it was like the Lord took my five loaves and two fishes and multiplied it. He took those songs and he. Spread them out to lots of people. So it has to be so crazy. Now when people tell you, and I'm sure it reaches much further than me listening with my little girls in Philadelphia, but I think that.
People listen to your songs all over the world and they touch their hearts and they instill faith. So is that just like mind-boggling to you sometimes? I mean, absolutely. For sure. Because when I decided to major in music back in the day and left Cougars, there was no internet. People didn't have computers in their home, [00:22:00] right?
There was no YouTube, no media or no social media. I didn't even, I couldn't even have imagined those things if you had explained them to me. Right. What God knew. God knew and he led me along this path. But yeah, it's, I get letters from people all over the world and it's really, and, and I would say maybe 35 to 40% of the, my music that is.
That is bought by people or performed by people are, they are not LDS, so in lots of other congregations. So that's just been both mind boggling and really fun and and fulfilling. I'm sure. Well, I wanna touch on this love that you have for songwriting. I happen to know that you help young songwriters. You do like workshops.
Is that right? For songwriting, uh, we are teaching our second workshop in a couple of weeks. Yes. Okay. So when you are teaching people about songwriting, I'm curious, what do you think it is that makes a successful, I don't even know if successful is the right word, but what is it that makes a great song?
Oh, man. I'm putting you on the spot. I mean, there's so many things and, and
I don't even know if I can to characterize it, but first of all, it has to be the, the lyrics have to be lyrics that. People individually can relate to. Mm-hmm. Like if I hear something on the radio and I'm like, oh man, that's how I feel, then I love that song forever. So I think, and I always start with the lyrics.
People ask, what's your process? I almost [00:24:00] always start with the lyrics, but then there's this really magical combination, and when you put it with music, it's both memorable and. Singable and repeatable. And that's why songs can just live forever and ever and ever. If we knew the words to, I am a Child of God and only the words, people wouldn't be reciting them, but we know that to a, a piece of music.
Melody. Yes, we know that to a melody and it is sung and sung and resang and we never get tired of it. I don't know what makes a great piece of music. If I had the answer to that, I'd be way more famous than I'm Well you, you have far surpassed those 30,000 views, which I actually think a lot of people would be pretty stoked about.
But, but I also wanted to ask you, so this is one thing that was, like I said, amazing to me becoming a mom because. Watching a child latch on to a primary song or watching it completely change the feeling in our home, even when she can't understand the doctrine behind the song. And so I wondered, what is it do you think that makes primary songs so powerful?
Um, well, I kind of, I kind of just said it. I feel like, I mean. Primary songs generally have just the basic principles of the gospel in them. Mm-hmm. The basic principles of the gospel have power to tax all your brilliance forever. Because they are both simple, but they are so rich and deep and meaningful and they, and they, and you carry them with you throughout your life.
So we're talking about basic principles of the gospel set [00:26:00] to a melody that you can always remember and when you learn a primary song, you always remember it. I can still name in order the books of the New Testament because I learned. Matthew, mark, John, the X and the Romans when I was in first, second Corinthian.
Right. There's no way I would've know those in order if I hadn't learned that song. Yeah, no doubt. Well, and and I think that what you just said touches on. The interesting thing I think about trying to teach a 2-year-old the gospel is that I feel like my testimony in the very. Most basic little scripture study that we try to do in trying to, to simplify it to a point that she will understand it.
I feel like my testimony gets deeper and I don't even know like how that works. It does it, it seems counterintuitive. Yeah, for sure. Um, but it definitely, it's definitely been a blessing for me. You mentioned that you had some bad experiences with, do you Have Room? I love that song. There was a, a mix up with copyright on the video that you put on YouTube and you ended up having to take it down.
Yeah. I feel like this kind of thing happens so frequently when you're trying to do something that's good. And it has to go back to the whole idea of opposition in all things. I imagine that is not the only time that you have experienced opposition. So I wonder what, what have you learned about how much Satan.
Would love for these songs to never reach people. Uh, I mean, I, I don't think I can say it any better than you just said it. Satan would love these songs to never reach people. Satan would love any good thing you set out to do to not happen. And so he, he works to prevent that stuff from happening in whatever way [00:28:00] he can.
And I You mentioned, do you have room? And I did have the video went viral, the first video, which is nuts, viral. Yeah. I mean, which is. Which was really crazy. And I had embedded my own email at the end of the video, which is also really crazy and dumb. But like if, if you want the music and I just gave it away.
If you want the music, email me at, you know, my personal email. And I got emails all over from all over the world, from people who wanted like a hundred emails a day. Wow. For those three weeks that it was up. And then I had to take it down and then people were mad at me 'cause they were planning on using it like.
In their Christmas Eve mass and all of these places, but I also had another. Experience. Right. That went right along with that, with Do you have room? And that's that. I entered it in the church song contest and it won one of the awards and, and they had this big concert. So this is the very first live performance of one of my songs.
And I, I was just like, stoked. They had this big concert on Temple Square. And choir from BYU Idaho sang all of the music, and they were fabulous. But they had given a, they had given my song to a soloist, which it was a solo, and I don't know if he was a last minute stand in or what, but man, he just slaughtered it.
He, he, it was, it was unrecognizable. Oh. The melody, the words, the rhythm, everything was wrong. And I, I was just like so mad. I was so mad that that happened and so disappointed that I literally came home and took, I had copied a bunch, made a bunch of really beautiful copies of it and given them to friends for Christmas, but I took all the ones I had left over and just stuffed them in the bottom file drawer, and I'm [00:30:00] like, I'm never doing another thing.
Another thing with my music because it was so disappointing. And so, yeah, I mean, I've had, I've had some opposition and opposition can do two things. It can stop you or it can make you stronger. And, um, I, I feel like, you know. Uh, we can, and we often do this, we get done with something. Let's say you taught a Relief Society lesson and you get done with it, and it was a good lesson, but what do you think of and what do you focus on?
Everything you said wrong. That's right. Or the thing you meant to say that you didn't, or the fact that you didn't compliment somebody's comment or, you know, those little things. And that is Satan trying to stop us from doing it and going and having the faith that we can do it again. And, uh, I, I think it's really, really funny 'cause I, I just had, we just had a grandson, they live up in Spokane and he came to the BYU basketball camp.
He's 13 and he had a bad experience in a game. In one of Hi, his last game that he played, he had the ball with seven seconds to go and had a chance to win it and didn't realize that there were only seven seconds on the clock and he dribbled the ball out instead of putting a shot up or giving the ball to somebody else.
And when the buzzer rang, he was mortified that he had done that. Right? And he wrote to his, he texted his parents and he's like, I'm terrible. I, I, I. He actually said, I suck. And if you want to take that outta the, if you wanna delete that, but there was, that is the best word for how he was feeling. Yeah.
He's like, I suck. This was at the end of the day and they're like, oh, you know, blah, blah, blah. What did [00:32:00] you learn? This is how you have to approach it, is finding out what you would learn. And at the bottom of the text thread, he said, oh, by the way, they gave me the league. MVP. It's typical. So we had had a fabulous camp.
He had played well, the whole camp, and what did he take away? I suck. Right? Because he'd had that bad experience in that he made that one mistake in a game, right? So anyway, opposition comes and you can focus on it or you can just say, I'll, I'll just try to do better the next time. Your, uh, grandson's quote could be, uh, quoted by me in reference to my abilities as a mother.
So I appreciate that. I mean, we all go away about stuff. So I, I wanted to ask you this. You mentioned, so I, I mentioned earlier you were trying out for cougars in college, and you said that you had this distinct feeling that you didn't belong there. I got the impression that that was not a feeling of like imposter syndrome, but instead revelation like inspiration.
Yes. That was not the place for you. Right. You also said that you have dealt with though from once. Once your song started having some success, you were like, oh, well now I have to repeat this, and people have expectations of the kind of song that I'm gonna put out. Right. And what if it's not a good one?
And so I wondered. What would you say? I, I, I found it interesting kind of the contrast between these two things. One in which that feeling of you don't belong here feels like inspiration and is probably a good thing, and the other of you don't belong here. Imposter syndrome, negative thing. So how would you say that you differentiate those two?
I mean. The first answer might be time. I am not certain that when I felt like I didn't belong in cts [00:34:00] that I knew it was inspiration. It's kind of only looking back where I. I finally, you know, followed what I felt and then saw that that was the right thing for me. Mm-hmm. That I, that I can say that it was inspiration.
But one thing I will say about imposter syndrome is, and the difference between them is it's not helpful, it's just you're a fraud. People are gonna find out, imposter syndrome doesn't open any other doors, it just shuts it. It just shuts the doors and you think, I can't do this. I'm terrible, so I should just give up.
But inspiration opens other doors. Hmm. It might be you don't belong here, but then it will also be this is where you belong eventually. Sometimes that takes time. Okay? Or this isn't the right path for you, but. This is the right path. So I think that's probably the difference is inspiration gives you new opportunities for growth and imposter syndrome just shuts you down.
Okay. That's perfect. That makes complete sense. The irony to me of what you were just saying is this idea of you are a fraud. That idea coming from Satan makes complete sense because he is a fraud. I love that. I've never thought about that. Well, I, we just were talking in Sunday school yesterday about how Satan does such a good job of, of giving partial truths.
So you'll have something that's like 90% true, but then 10% just sends it spiraling into something that's actually not good for us. And so when you said that, I was like, oh, that makes complete sense that that is the message that he would try to send because. He is fraudulent himself. Shawna, you have now written some of the most beloved church songs of the last decade, I would say, and one thing that I loved about your interview with Lizzie is that it was so clear, [00:36:00] not that you had to come out and say it, but that it was so clear just in the testimony that you shared.
That you wrote a song about miracles and anybody listening I'm sure has heard that song. I love that song so much and I love it, especially because shout out to my girl, Kristen Scott. Her, her verse on that is so good. So good. Um, but, uh, I loved hearing that you as somebody that wrote a song that we all love about miracles, believe in miracles.
And so I wondered how have you seen miracles in your life, Shawna? Oh my goodness. I've seen so many miracles. I mean, there's, there're miracles in ordinary everyday life. We just don't, we just get so used to them. We don't think of them as miracles. I mean, life itself is a miracle. Breath is a miracle. The sun rising is a miracle.
The fact that you and I are talking. We're not anywhere in the same area. Right. And then other people are gonna be able to hear this. That's a miracle. The fact that I can put a bunch of random ingredients together and come out with cookies. I mean, all of those things are miracles if we, if we think about them.
But I feel like there've been, I, I mean. I have maybe 65 songs on YouTube, and there isn't a one of them that was not accompanied with multiple miracles. Um, I, I mean, I could tell you a million of them, but I, I feel like that there, and you may have heard this on the Lizzie podcast, there's, I feel like there are song miracles where.
Someone is, is writing a [00:38:00] song and they are given the words, or they come up with the words that are just the perfect words for someone else to hear at a specific time. And I believe that the Lord sends that song to that person and, and I and you. You just wouldn't believe how many people write to me and say, your song saved me.
I literally had a man tell me one time that, and he said this in front of a whole fireside that I was giving, he said he, he became suicidal and he, and he had several children and he left his house thinking that he was going to end it all. The miracle came on his playlist in his car and he said, I drove around and listened to that song over and over and over and over until I felt differently and I went home to my family.
I, I mean, I have this, I have a cousin who has a severely autistic son. Son, and he said, he told me this story. He said he'd never sung a word, not one word. And he'd get up and he'd be up there on the stand at the primary program and his mouth would remain shut the whole time all the other kids are singing.
So he says he's 11 and it's his last primary program. And they closed with this song, the Miracle. And there's probably more miracles with this song just because people know it. It's, it's my most known song. But anyway, this kid, he, he wasn't really singing it. But what they had done is they were singing it at the end, and then they had assigned one of the older primary girls to sing that last tagline by herself, the Miracle that rescues You and me.
And she was going to come up to the mic. Well, as the song went on, this kid started to move. [00:40:00] My cousin's son started to move towards the mic, and my cousin was like, oh no, what is he gonna do? And he stepped in front of that little girl and he sang. The last line himself, and he had never sung before. Um, and then, you know, they apologized to the girl and her parents and everybody in the world was like, no, that, that was a miracle.
That was worth witnessing. That was so sweet. And so, I mean, there, the filming of the videos and the, the cre, the just the writing process and being given, um, being given specific words and like when I wrote Always Be My Savior, I fought for every single word. Of that song, I just, I really struggled to get the right words, but there was a line that came to me that was just given to me.
It was a gift, and it was even when the feeling isn't there, and this was the line, if waiting is the cross, I have to bear. Hmm. I feel like that's one of my very, very best lines. 'cause we all wait, right? We all wait for blessings and pray and pray and pray and, and they don't always come. And even if they're good things, they, they don't always come.
But that was a line that needed to be in the song and the Lord just gave it to me. I didn't have to work for that one line. And it's the best line. That's amazing. Well, it's interesting to me, first of all, I think what you were saying about a song being sent to someone in their moment of need, I think obviously church songs can do that, but it's amazing to me that sometimes a completely secular song can be true.
An answer to prayer as well. But I, I wanted to share with you that I, I know that you've said that the Living [00:42:00] Christ Project was one of the hardest things you've ever done. Yeah. But if for no other reason, there was a young woman myself, who was uh, going through a breakup with my now husband, but there were three weeks where we did not speak.
During those three weeks, I listened to those Living Christ project songs over and over and over again. And I look back on that time and I'm like, that was a huge blessing like that, that the, the piece that I felt during those three weeks when I should have felt so devastated because I thought I had found the person I was gonna marry and it wasn't working out.
I felt complete peace and knew that everything was gonna be okay. And so. From me to you. Thank you for that. That little miracle that I felt like I experienced because of your hard work. Your song because was just announced as one of the songs in the new hymn book, and I feel like we're all so used to the green hymn book and the songs in the Green hymn book, and so it, it takes a little bit of, I feel like adjusting and I've heard good ideas of how people are introducing these songs in their ward.
Actually, our, our new ward, my husband and I just, our family just moved and our new ward is having each family in the ward. Sing one of the new hymns, and I thought, that's such a good idea. Love that. Um, but I, I wondered why are you personally excited for a new generation of hymns? Well, I mean they've included to start with, I love some of the great old Christian hymns that they've included, like Amazing Grace.
Yes. I mean that's one of the greatest hymns of all time and I am like, it's about time. It's our new book. It's so perfect. And I love the new styles like. This little light of mine. Yeah, I love that. That's [00:44:00] in there. And I don't know if you've heard the church's recording of it. I don't know that I have on the church music app.
Oh my. It's so adorable. And you have to listen to the whole thing. It's, it's a kid singing it and it's just so adorable. And so I, and I think there was like an African hymn that was mm-hmm. Okay. In this last batch. I feel like as a church, we need to broaden our music horizons a little bit and we need to make music joyful and robust and exciting again, right?
Because it's really easy for all of our hymns to sound like funeral Georges in section. And I, I just wish we had a, just a little bit of Baptist, little pizazz, hallelujah. In it. Yeah. You know, it just, it just feels like we could do so much better in our music and that music would be meaningful and, and, um, it would, it would enhance our worship services so much.
So I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled they're doing a new Hyn book, and I'm excited to see all the new stuff come out. Well, because was one of my favorite songs on an old E-F-Y-C-D, so I am excited to have it now in the hymn book. Shawna, it has been such a delight to talk with you. Um, my last question for you is, what does it mean to you to be all in the gospel of Jesus Christ?
I think we're serving at the MTC right now and we just got called about three months ago and it's so great and our branch president just said this really simple statement to us. He said, my wife and I have just tried to put the Lord first every day. And I, that's such a simple way to think about it.
Putting the Lord first every day. Um, but you know, I, I ran across a talk by Elder [00:46:00] Christopherson recently, and I love his talks and I love the way he puts things. And he said, I wrote this down. True discipleship is a state in which the gospel of Jesus Christ penetrates one's heart and soul, where the gospel becomes not just one of many influences in a person's life, but the defining focus of his or her life and character.
So I think, you know, the defining focus, um, making that the most important thing and trusting. Trusting the Lord enough to do it, his way to do things, his way to say, okay, like Nephi, I, I don't know the meaning of all things. Nevertheless, I know that God loveth his children. Um.
Mm. That's what it means to me to trust, to trust him enough to do it his way and make him and his gospel, the defining focus of our lives. Beautifully said. Shawna, thank you so much. I, I think that you are such a blessing and, and I'm grateful to, to be able to feel the spirit of the music that you write in my home and now to be able to meet you.
So thank you so much. It's been great. Thank you.
We are so grateful to Shawna Edwards for joining us on this week's episode. We are also grateful as always to Derek Campbell for his help, and we're thankful to you for listening. We'll look forward to being with you again next week.