Have you ever written an important letter or composed something on a word processor that was inadvertently destroyed? The feeling can be sickening. How can I ever replace or rewrite what has been lost?

Prolific Scottish writer of the early 1800s, Thomas Carlyle, had this same experience. One of his major projects was a monumental work on the French Revolution. Finishing the first chapter, he gave the paper manuscript to his friend John Stuart Mill to read. Sadly, Mill’s servant, thinking the pile of paper was trash, started a fire with it. What had taken years to write literally went up in smoke. Carlyle was devastated.

It is said that not long after this tragedy, Carlyle one day passed by a bricklayer who was at work on a massive cathedral. He observed the laborer deftly laying brick by brick. With patience and persistence, he was building a work that was to last for centuries upon centuries.

Carlyle took heart, figuring that little by little he, too, could re-write what had been lost and perhaps, just perhaps, the result might even be better than his first effort — and a lasting work.

The lesson, of course, is found in the Book of Mormon scripture “By small and simple things are great things brought to pass.” This truth reflects on anything worthwhile that we attempt in life — whether it is writing or rewriting a book word-by-word, page-by-page, the building of a home and family day by day and year by year, or whatever else we take upon ourselves to accomplish.

We keep at it because in our hearts we know that what we are doing has worth and value — that we are, in essence, building our own cathedrals — sometimes without even realizing it.

It was Albert Einstein who said, “It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” And it was renowned authors, Pearl Buck and Alex Haley, who were both rejected more than 200 times before their first books were accepted for publication. And it was Thomas Edison who said “I just found 1,000 things that didn’t work” — this as he persevered in finally inventing the incandescent bulb. This is especially interesting as we learn that when he was a young boy, his school teacher told him he was “too stupid to learn anything.”

Just think what these incredibly patient and hard-working individuals accomplished? Their efforts revolutionized the world in so many ways! They laid their bricks one at a time, adding much to the ever-changing world in which we live.

Following their example, are we ready to commit — or recommit — to laying our own bricks and building our own cathedrals each and every day?

A smile here, a kind word there, forgiving shortcomings in ourselves and others thus building better relationships, starting over after the world around us seems to have crumbled. Surely by making these efforts, we can come to realize the veritable and eternal truth that “By small and simple things are great things brought to pass.”

Dean and Nancy Hoch are local public affairs representatives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. dean.nancy@gmail.com.