Music swelled around Shawna Edwards as she sat in the Conference Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City.
It was the Saturday morning session of the October 2025 general conference, and The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square was singing an arrangement of “Because,” a song she wrote in 2006. The song was recently added to “Hymns — For Home and Church.”
“It was really one of the great moments of my life,” she said.
When Edwards wrote “Because” for a class at Brigham Young University, she never imagined she would witness the Tabernacle Choir sing it.
Then again, she never imagined as a college freshman that she would be using the internet to share her testimony through music on a YouTube channel with millions of views, but that’s exactly what she’s doing now.
“I didn’t have any idea, but God knew,” Edwards said. “And He knew that somebody like me could share the gospel in a new way. And He was just preparing me for it.”
Edwards’ professional music journey is a testament to God’s work behind the scenes.
“God’s plan for us is always greater than our own,” she said. “Always.”
Seeing God’s plan in hindsight
Edwards returned to BYU to pursue a degree in music media when she was 45 years old — nearly 30 years and five children after her freshman year of college.
Finishing her degree hadn’t been in her plans, but when her sister told her about a friend who returned to school, Edwards heard a voice tell her, “You should too.”
“I can only name a few times in my life when I have had as direct a piece of revelation as this,” Edwards said about the prompting.
When Edwards started at BYU as an 18-year-old, her plan was to perform with the Cougarettes, the school’s nationally acclaimed dance team.
But as the semester began, she felt a persistent pull to the music school. She eventually quit the dance team and declared a major in piano performance, where instead of performing for thousands of people in a packed sports stadium, she spent hours practicing the piano alone in a basement classroom.
“There were a lot of days when I just thought, ‘What was I thinking?’” Edwards admitted. “And yet, I knew that I was where I belonged. I just knew that.”
Then, when she married her husband, John Edwards, she ended up leaving BYU without completing her degree.
Shawna Edwards said when she returned to the school of music 30 years later, it was highly competitive. She felt that if she hadn’t already declared a music major as an 18-year-old, she likely wouldn’t have been accepted into the program in 2006.
“And so 30, 40 years later, I know why,” Edwards said about joining the music school as a freshman. “The Lord led me there.”
Technology as a tool
Edwards’ career has continued to take unexpected turns since her return to BYU nearly 20 years ago.
She’s now composed about 70 gospel-centered songs and publishes music videos on a YouTube channel with 149,000 subscribers and millions of views.
Similar to how the Lord guided her to join the music school and return to BYU, Edwards sees His help during her creative process.
“There are miracles in every song,” she said.
Edwards reflected back on her first year of college when social media didn’t exist.
“If you had tried to explain that stuff to me, I wouldn’t — it would boggle my mind.”
Now, the internet is one of Edward’s greatest tools in sharing her testimony.
She recently received an email from a man in Sri Lanka who is the director of a Christian school for students in kindergarten through high school. He told her his school has been singing her songs for six years and plans to sing more at their Christmas program this year.
According to Edwards, he is just one of many people from around the world who have reached out to tell her how much her songs mean to them.
“It’s astounding what the Lord has done with technology and the ability that that gives us to share the gospel in different ways,” she said.
All good things come from Christ
“Because” was Edwards’ first song, written during her first semester back at BYU in 2006.
Her songwriting professor gave her class an open-ended assignment: write a song about any topic. Edwards knew she wanted to write something about the Savior.
The verses came together quickly for Edwards.
“All I wanted was to kind of link His actions and His character with all of the good things that we have,” she explained, referencing lyrics from “Because” such as “Because He walked the path, I know the way” and “Because He died for me, I’ll live again.”
Composing the chorus was more challenging, said Edwards.
She wanted to sum up everything she felt the Lord had given her but had only one line of music left to do so.
“There’s just no way to say it all,” she said, adding that the Savior gave the world “everything He had to give.”
Edwards eventually came up with the closing line “I breathe, I see, I hope, I love, I live.”
“I felt like those were a pretty good representation of a million other things,” she said.
Edwards said she feels honored to have “Because” included in “Hymns — For Home and Church.”
“I just feel grateful to be a part of it and hope that congregations will sing it for years and years to come.”
'Because'
Because He calmed the storm, I’m not afraid.
Because He made the lame to walk and caused the blind to see
And blessed the children one by one, I feel His love for me.
The Savior of the world,
And I will sing together
With all the Saints on earth.
Because He gave to me ev’rything
He had to give,
I breathe, I see, I hope, I love, I live.
Because He is my Friend, I’ll follow Him.
Because He fills the world with light, I’m filled with hope and peace.
And when He comes to earth again, I’ll kneel before His feet.
The Savior of the world,
And I will sing together
With all the Saints on earth.
Because He gave to me ev’rything
He had to give,
I breathe, I see, I hope, I love, I live.
Heavenly and familial support
Going back to school and putting her songs on the internet was scary for Edwards. She attributes much of her growth to her husband.
“He’s been really the force behind me moving forward with all this music since I started,” she said. “In fact, I tell people that if it wasn’t for him, I would never have done any of it.”
John Edwards said it’s been wonderful to see his wife doing missionary work “in her special way.”
“She has a lot more confidence now when she releases songs, and I think that comes from knowing that the music will bring the Spirit to people and be a source of encouragement and strength when they need it.”
Shawna Edwards also acknowledged that the Lord has guided and magnified her through her career.
“Over and over and over and over, I can see how willing the Lord is to help us when we’re on His errand,” she said. “I tell people all the time, ‘You’ve got a talent that He blessed you with — use it, and He’ll help you.’”
