Why Ordinary People Still Build the Most Important Things
Last October, my husband and I had the opportunity to tour the Kirtland Temple and the historic village. During that visit, two phrases I heard several times during the tour particularly struck me. One was the description of the Savior’s voice as the sound of rushing waters, which I wrote about here. But our guides mentioned several times that these were “ordinary people who were asked to do extraordinary things.” We know today that they rose to the challenge and completed the first temple of this dispensation. In the months since then, I have reflected on how many ordinary people have done and continue to do extraordinary things.
The Kirtland Temple
The Kirtland Temple wasn’t designed by a licensed architect, and it wasn’t constructed by a commercial builder. It wasn’t built by any experts or men of wealth, but by farmers, tradespeople, and faithful believers. The Lord Himself revealed the plans to the Prophet Joseph Smith, who conveyed them to the laborers. The building itself rose from the ground at the hands of ordinary people. The men provided the arms and backs for the actual construction, quarrying the stone, hauling timber, and building the structure. The women clothed and fed the workers, provided shelter and support for them, and provided the linens and other soft materials for the temple.
We know several names of the men and women who contributed their time, talents, and labor to the first temple. However, there are many more very ordinary people who put forth extraordinary service, of whom no record exists. Without them, the Kirtland Temple would have died as an unfulfilled commandment.
While we don’t use it today as an active temple, the Kirtland Temple served its purpose as a location for the restoration of several priesthood keys. In temples throughout the world today, millions of men and women, ordinary people, are doing the extraordinary work of proxy ordinances for their ancestors. And that’s just one example.
The Myth of the Superhuman
We have a tendency to believe that big people do all the big things – famous, rich, brilliant. There is some truth to that when we consider men like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. While their contributions to the world are big, they’re still a very small portion of the world’s productivity. Most of the progress, the healing, the art, the faith, and the innovation come from people who aren’t famous.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, patients received care from medical professionals whose names are known only to a relative few. You probably have in your circle of acquaintances, whether you’re aware of it or not, someone who would have fallen through the cracks but for the care and attention of one teacher. Over the day, millions of people make phone calls or visits to check on someone just to make sure they’re okay, and see to their needs.
It’s not Amazon. It’s not Tesla. But to a lonely patient in a hospital, it’s much more important. To that student who decides to keep living, it’s bigger than Amazon. To someone who just needs help moving a chair so they can see out the window, it matters more than Tesla. These are extraordinary things to someone, and it takes ordinary people to do them.
Quiet Courage and Unseen Effort
Let’s talk about that word, “extraordinary.” It doesn’t always mean flashy or bright. We don’t need to use any superlatives to talk about it. Sometimes, it’s just consistency, compassion, or simply showing up.
Recently, Mike Rowe had a woman on her podcast who was telling her grandfather’s story. He’d written a book with the help of another man about his life in the military, which had him stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. The name of the book is All the Gallant Men: An American Sailor’s Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor. The underlying story of this man is how ordinary he considered himself. (I’ve ordered the book and I can’t wait to read it, but I encourage you to listen to this episode of Mike’s podcast, which you can find here.)
Wartime produces many such ordinary people who do extraordinary things. Some of them get medals, fewer get national recognition. The ones who come home never forget them.
Why This Matters Now
Beyond the simple phrase and its relevance to building the temple, I felt that the time was right to remind us all of the significance of ordinary people. In an age of performance and platforms, influencers and attention-seekers, it’s easy to feel we don’t measure up unless we’re “exceptional.” What matters? What is enough?
While society, or “the world”, is full of hidden agendas, our Savior lets us know what he expects of us. Remember the parable of the talents, with its lesson: “Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matthew 25:21). We learn here that being faithful in small things can lead to extraordinary results.
Showing up to work on time and ready to serve isn’t the stuff of epic poetry, is it? But it’s a general start to a good day that may set the tone for the whole team. Other small acts of simple courtesy or kindness may have deeper effects and longer-lasting consequences. Whether they do or not, we should always remind ourselves, and each other, that it’s the small, ordinary things – the putting one foot in front of the other consistently – that make things happen.
Walking through the temple at Kirtland, I saw the results of ordinary people putting forth extraordinary effort. More importantly, I receive daily blessings from those results, in the keys that the Heavenly messengers restored in that building. Those men and women, close to 200 years ago, sought only the blessings the Lord promised them. No fanfare, no fame, no influence or attention. They were unaware of the inspiration their daily walk with faith would have on millions of Latter-day Saints in 2025. They just did what the Lord asked them to do.
Your Turn
Consider today what quiet, powerful things you are being asked to do. Your efforts, however ordinary, may be part of something eternal. You don’t need a spotlight, a platform, an audience, or a calling. What’s one thing you can do, where you are today, this week, with what you have, right where you are? Leave a comment with your answer in the section below the Related Posts.
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