Nov 20, 2023

I love to hike. Whenever I have a chance, I hit the trail. I have lists of places that I want to hike and mountains I want to summit.

As I read in 1 Peter this week, I thought of cairns. A cairn is a manmade pile of rocks that is assembled to be a marker or a memorial. Often people make these cairns to mark a trail that could be difficult to find or as a guidepost to reassure hikers that they are on the right path. Cairns are also often built as memorials. For instance, they may be built at the top of an especially difficult mountain summit to memorialize the sacrifice and accomplishment of finishing the hike.

In 1 Peter 2:5–10, Peter described Jesus Christ as a stone—the “chief corner stone,” the foundation of the gospel and of our faith. He discussed “lively stones,” which are a living foundation. As I read these verses, I contemplated my own memorial. I thought of the stones in my cairn, my spiritual landmarks, the things that have helped me to build a solid foundation. I am sure many of the rocks in our cairns are the same—prayer, scripture study, church attendance, key people in our lives—but many of the rocks will be different.

I have specific experiences that have helped me build my cairn, such sacred experiences that help me to know Jesus and to see Him in my life. Many of those came painfully and with much sacrifice. With each stone I add to my cairn, my testimony becomes stronger. I hope to leave a memorial, my own personal cairn full of stones that show the hard work, sacrifices, and love that I have for my Lord Jesus Christ. I hope it will demonstrate my “spiritual sacrifices” (1 Peter 2:5) and that the Lord will know that I gave it my all. I summited my own personal Mt. Everest, and it was so worth it!

Wilford Woodruff exemplified this when he said,

If it cost me my life to defend the truth of the everlasting gospel of the Son of God, and to build upon the great and mighty foundation which God has laid in this last dispensation and fulness of times, through the instrumentality of his servant Joseph, the prophet, seer, and revelator, for the pruning of the vineyard once more for the last time, for the warning of the Gentiles, for the salvation of the honest in heart, and meek of the earth, the building up of Zion, the establishment of Jerusalem, the final deliverance of Israel, and to prepare the Saints for the hour of judgment which is to come, and to secure unto the righteous an exaltation of glory beyond the veil; I say, if it cost me my life, let it go; I want to be among the number; I am ready to follow the example of those who have gone before me—when my work is done, I am ready to be offered, if necessary.¹

Shauna graduated from Brigham Young University–Idaho in April 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in Marriage and Family. She has spent most of her life raising her four children and two foster daughters. She loves being a mother and now a grandmother to three perfect preschoolers. She has a passion for marriage and family. She worked for the Wilford Woodruff Papers as an intern on the content team and was hooked. Now, she is ecstatic to continue working as the content manager. She loves the gospel and is thrilled to be a part of a project that will impact generations to come. Shauna loves hiking in the Pacific Northwest where she lives, reading, going on adventures with her husband and children, camping, and doing anything water related. She also has been an early morning seminary teacher the last seven years and loves teenagers.