In Our Lovely Deseret: Dare to do right and accomplish more than ever imagined

But to the astonishment of all, her words came to pass. With a sound like thunder, the ice tore a narrow pathway, enabling the boat to maneuver through. Then they watched the opening groan, shift and close up again, and no other boat — save this one carrying Mormons — was enabled to proceed.

A natural miracle; a miraculous escape: an example of one who set about to do good whenever the opportunity came under her hand.

“There are many wonderful things that will never be done, if you don’t do them,” wrote Charles D. Gill.

What were Lucy Mack Smith's words? "Lift your desires to him."

Great things can happen in small but significant ways, if we make a determination to “do and dare.” We are not here to shuffle along life’s byways, to “put in our time.”

As Henry Stanley Haskins, a Wall Street trader and initially, the anonymous author of "Meditations in Wall Street,” wrote, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

Dare to do right and we will find the magnificence within ourselves, that is just waiting for expression and release.

Susan Evans McCloud is author of more than 40 books and has published screenplays, a book of poetry and lyrics, including two songs in the LDS hymnbook. She has six children and blogs at susanevansmccloud.blogspot.com. Email: susasays@broadweave.net