Baking Soda: for Athletes Foot (Fast)


How to get rid of athlete’s foot quickly and cheaply using baking soda. 

1. Athlete's foot, also known as foot fungus is a common problem where cracked and itchy skin appears between the toes and underneath the foot.

2. This happens when the feet have been wet for too long, from sweat or other moisture. A fungus called Trichophyton rubrum infects the skin.

This can be very uncomfortable, with red cracked skin, itching, burning and irritation. 

3. The good news is that there are many natural remedies which can be used to heal and prevent athlete’s foot. 

Baking soda is a natural white powder which can be applied directly to the area between and beneath the toes. 

4. To do this, make a paste by mixing a little water with 2 tablespoons of baking soda. Apply this all over the feet and allow it to dry before washing with a gentle soap.

Apply this twice per day until the problem is resolved. This destroys the fungus, and allows the skin to heal itself. 

You can also sprinkle baking soda into your socks if you have sweaty feet, to prevent the fungus from infecting the skin again.

5. Baking soda is extremely cheap and can be used in all kinds of home remedies such as cleaning carpets, alkalizing the body and more. 

6. If you suffer with cracked heels and hard skin on the bottoms of the feet, soak them twice per week in warm water mixed with baking soda. 

This will heal the feet and reduce the build-up of hard skin. It also has positive psychological effects as it is very relaxing and reduces stress. 

7. To learn more about baking soda and other natural remedies, please see our other videos.  
  

The Best Ways to Soothe Your Hemorrhoid Problem at Home!

Hemorrhoids are a tough nut to crack and make you feel really bad throughout the day if it aggravates for any reason. While there are plenty of reasons as to why hemorrhoids happen, knowing them does not give any sort of relief, which is kind of a necessity, because hemorrhoids can be excruciatingly painful
Gastroenterologist Durham NC

So, this blog brings you some of the easy home remedies that might actually work for the best and soothe your soul a little. If it still seems uncontrollable, then the time will have come to get the best hemorrhoid treatment in Dunn and get you back up. Now let’s take a look at what the remedies are:

1. The Sitz Bath 

If you have not heard of this treatment, then you probably do not have a hemorrhoid problem after all, because this is one of the most common and effective ways to get the soreness to feel better. It involves sitting on a bowl of warm water for a period of time, something around 15 minutes, and doing it for a few times in a day. It is especially good after you have had a bowel session on the pot and it has been particularly tough to feel comfortable since. 

2. Apply Coconut Oil 

A naturally occurring lubricant, coconut oil when applied to the rectum can ease swelling and give you a cooling effect as it has anti-inflammatory properties. It also eases muscles after they have been sore from the tug and pull routines that go on during your daily bowel movements. The best part of coconut oil as a remedy is the fact that it is very easily available and that is what makes it one of the most effective and fast treatments possible. 

3. Witch Hazel 

This is another very effective method of treating hemorrhoids and can go a long way in soothing the pain, slow bleeding and inflammation that grip you each time you take a crap. One can apply witch hazel directly on the hemorrhoids and feel the change over time. Witch hazel is considered by many as one of the best ways to treat the disease. 

These are the 3 ways in which you can tackle your hemorrhoid situation at home, and while there are several others on the internet, most of them are not that effective and their redundancy might be an added irritation for you. And in case, you get no relief from these remedies and cures as well, then it is time for a procedure of hemorrhoid removal in Garner NC and then you can live happily ever after! 

Is it accurate to say that you are a Slave to Your Brain?

Is it true that you are accountable for your life? Or then again would you say you are a slave to your cerebrum's want for concoction rapture?

I as of late viewed a moderator's TED Talk titled "The key to want in a long haul relationship" that drove me to make this very inquiry of myself. As the title proposes, this TED Talk was about long haul connections and why such huge numbers of present day relational unions wind up falling flat. The speaker, a relationship specialist named Esther Perel, brought up that current couples frequently come up short since they anticipate that their accomplice will fulfill two opposite human needs: the requirement for solace and unwavering quality and the requirement for oddity and fervor.

This important understanding influenced me to acknowledge the amount of our lives can be seen as a mission for these two perspectives. Sex, for instance, is generally comprehended to be powered by curiosity. Gary B. Wilson's well known book and site Your Brain on Porn, for instance, discloses how dependence on web erotica is in reality a dependence on the dopamine surge one gets from finding another video of intrigue. While it might appear to be anything but difficult to laugh at those dependent on web porn, this pattern is a microcosm of our general public's expanding reliance on innovation and the simple access to dopamine spikes this takes into account. Those of you perusing this article, ask yourselves: what inspiration lies behind that demonstration? The whole self-change development is based around little dopamine surges experienced when one considers they have accomplished a "win."

While what I am stating may appear glaringly evident, numerous individuals disregard to consider exactly the amount they are a slave to their cerebrum's want for positive sentiments.

In any case, is this extremely another marvel? I don't think so. Prior to the innovation of PCs or cell phones enabled access to porn, individuals got their fix somewhere else: playboy, sexual call focuses, peep-indicate corners, and Victoria's Secret inventories all verify that. Of course, the straightforward entry today is phenomenal yet it's as yet a similar story of the cerebrum searching out dopamine. Indeed, even in the 1950s Leave it to Beaver-esque presence, the model agent needed to have his night pipe, shoes, and daily paper. Is this not the photo of dopamine chasing? Moment delight, solace, and curiosity all moved into one fulfilling custom.

Approve, so we acknowledge that we are controlled by our brains, what at that point? Is there any incentive in that acknowledgment? Would it be advisable for us to endeavor to counter this conduct? Some think this is the reason for religion. In the Middle Ages, for instance, the Church assumed an imperative part in controlling robust knights who came back from Crusade with an unfortunate hunger for murdering, assaulting, and looting. Organically, those knights were likely pursuing a comparative dopamine hurry to "addicts" of various sorts today.

Numerous religions force decides that work to control our unfortunate hunger for vanity, to wind up more caring, and look after others. The undeniable admonition to this is playing out a "magnanimous" deed could turn into an elective method for securing that same surge of positive emotions - and turn into a childish demonstration in itself. Trusting that philanthropy gets one into paradise is the same than trusting that the opening machine you have been playing will in the long run "pay out."

Obviously, rationalists and religious researchers will fight that sacrificial demonstrations include great into the world- - which has a net constructive outcome. I don't deny this. In any case, my point here is that about the majority of our lives are controlled by the need to feel "great" either by oddity or nature.

Does this make life less significant?

Is it accurate to say that we are for the most part self-serving addicts?

The response to the last inquiry is, in a genuine sense, yes. A large portion of our lives are spent pursuing joy. Notwithstanding, that doesn't need to be an awful thing. While it might be in charge of the proceeded with ubiquity of Keeping up with the Kardashians, the human mind's dopamine compensate framework is in charge of everything people have made that is enchanting, eminent, heavenly, delectable, or out and out cool, in this world. Beethoven's fifth Symphony, Van Gough's Starry Night, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, none of these works would exist if not for the cerebrum's want for sweet, sweet dopamine.

Along these lines, proceed, enjoy some unscripted television, sex, and chocolate and thank your cerebrum for its (self-intrigued) benefit.


Time and Eternity - Cousins, But Not Brothers

Time and time everlasting are connected ideas however unique. They are not, the same number of accept, inverse sides of a similar coin, as it were. So we normally ask ourselves: how might we characterize these ideas?

In the event that you have ever considered it, you understand all that we comprehend is on the grounds that we comprehend its inverse. What is frosty? Chilly is the turn around, or inverse of hot. Also, high? It is what isn't low. Wide? Consider limit. Troublesome? Simple.

Thus it goes.

In reasoning, this is known as the by means of negativa - the comprehension of something by what it isn't. Normally scholars consolidate this approach when talking about God, as He can't be contrasted with anything since He is well beyond all things. So they talk about what He isn't, to touch base at what He is.

Time and time everlasting are like God in that there is nothing by which we can contrast them with.

Indeed, even Sir Isaac Newton, the renowned researcher, depicted time only as: "That which streams on consistently." What? Doesn't seem like a lot of a definition to me. Maybe this is on account of time can't generally be characterized.

Einstein made it a stride assist when he depicted the properties of time in his Theory of Relativity. Yet, he was taking a gander at time from the stance of logical clarification, not philosophical clarification.

How about we see what the most astute man who at any point lived needed to say in regards to time:

"He has made everything fitting in now is the right time. He has likewise set endlessness in their heart, yet so man won't discover the work which God has done from the earliest starting point even to the end." Ecclesiastes 3:11

In astuteness, Solomon introduced into His exchange of time, perceiving God as the creator. He comprehended God's power over the requesting of occasions. In the initial 8 verses of Ecclesiastes Chapter 3, he records a progression of occasions time was intended to clarify. Time, in this sense, is a method for estimating life.

Be that as it may, Solomon likewise talks about time everlasting, just in an unexpected way.

In the lexicon, endlessness is characterized as "unending time", in any case this is a pitiful definition. Endlessness isn't clarified by time; it is inside and out something unique. This is a wide discourse for some other time (joke expected), however for the present, let me simply say that endlessness isn't an amount of anything. Endlessness can't be an amount of time, for forever is interminable, vast, and outside the ability to understand. Time, then again, is quantifiable, and quantifiable.

In a word, time and forever don't characterize each other. Time has all the earmarks of being a piece of endlessness, yet not the slightest bit is forever deciphered by time.

Give me a chance to call attention to here an essential certainty: the main reason I or any other person considerations to talk about the idea of time or time everlasting is that God gave us a capacity to mind. We have time everlasting in our heart. It waits in our psyche, in our deepest being, goading us as we attempt to grasp all that which isn't clear through exact examination.

We as people are everlastingly looking for the past. There is an extreme, and we know it, and we need it. In any case, in our constrained day by day involvement, we understand there is no accomplishing it. It is gotten to in some other way, and what is that way?

THIS IS THE GREAT QUEST! From the earliest starting point of time, man has looked to comprehend the endless, the extraordinary. A huge number of years of seeking and still he looks.

People are restricted in the confinements of time while navigating this life on earth. We measure things by it, we recognize things by it. However, we are unceasing, so nothing in the confinements of time will ever be agreeable to us!

So in the event that you ever ask why the progression of time and the shortness of time brings torment, and there is always a strain on our souls, an aching for a definitive, the extraordinary, simply know it resembles the insightful sage stated:

God has set forever in our souls, and we will never discover rest until the point that we discover rest in the One who is endlessness itself: the Lord God Almighty.

RS Kniep is a solid adherent to the energy of shrewdness to influence constructive outcomes in individuals' lives. He trusts all bona fide astuteness, in its different structures, originates from God, as found in His Word, the Holy Bible.

As a searcher of insight from God, RS Kniep has contemplated both the Bible and contending sees for almost 25 years. His work centers around the Biblical books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes.


Introducing Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

[Update on June 16, 2018: AKS is now GA!]



Docker has been getting popular in recent years. It makes application deployment so efficient, we could easily build, ship, and run the application containers everywhere. With the trend of microservices, many people built a lot of services wrapped and deployed by containers, so container management and orchestration became a problem. Kubernetes solves this.

Kubernetes is an open source container management tool. It is a Go-Lang based, lightweight, and portable application. You can set up a Kubernetes cluster to deploy, manage, and scale the Docker container applications on multiple hosts.
However, building Kubernetes can be complex. Setting up Kubernetes nodes and control planes can be cumbersome. Furthermore, many people want leverage and integrate it with their own Continuous Delivery pipeline but getting to know the whole story and making it work well can be time-consuming.
Kubernetes comes from the Greek word κυβερνήτης:, which means helmsman or ship pilot. With this analogy in mind, we can think of Kubernetes as the manager for shipping containers.
Kubernetes is also referred to as k8s, as there are 8 characters between k and s.
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) reduces the complexity and operational overhead of managing a Kubernetes cluster by offloading much of that responsibility to Azure. As a hosted Kubernetes service, Azure handles critical tasks like health monitoring and maintenance for you. In addition, you pay only for the agent nodes within your clusters, not for the masters. As a managed Kubernetes service, AKS provides:
  • Automated Kubernetes version upgrades and patching
  • Easy cluster scaling
  • Self-healing hosted control plane (masters)
  • Cost savings - pay only for running agent pool nodes
Whereas AKS is still in Public Preview as we speak, during the Microsoft //build 2018 conference (May 7-9, 2018) we made some great announcements with this service like the deployment into an existing VNET, the integration with Azure Monitor and even the private preview of Windows containers! Check out the details of these updates.


As you are moving forward with Kubernetes and AKS you will need tools for more automation and simplifying your experience with it, here are some tools you should look at:
  • Azure Container Registry (ACR)
    • Azure Container Registry allows you to build, store, and manage images for all types of container deployments.
  • Helm
  • Draft
  • Brigade
    • Brigade is a tool for running scriptable, automated tasks as part of your Kubernetes cluster.
    • Checkout this introduction on Azure Friday - Channel9.
  • OSBA
    • Open Service Broker for Azure (OSBA) is an easy way to connect applications running in platforms like Kubernetes and Cloud Foundry to some of the most popular Azure services, using a standard, multi-cloud API.
    • Checkout this introduction on Azure Friday - Channel9.
  • VSTS
    • Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) is Microsoft's DevOps solutions for Azure. Whether you are developing a .NET, Java, Node, PHP, or a Python app, or whether you are targeting app services, virtual machines, or containers in Azure, VSTS helps you set up a highly customizable continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) pipeline.
    • Get started with DevOps Project with AKS to generate your CI/CD pipeline with VSTS, Git, Docker, ACR, Helm and Kubernetes/AKS.
  • VS Code
  • Azure Dev Spaces for Kubernetes
    • In Private Preview, you could sign up and see how this platform could help you deploying and debugging applications within Kubernetes clusters.
    • Checkout this demonstration at Microsoft //build 2018 - Channel9

Have you heard about Serverless Containers? Serverless Containers is becoming more and more popular. Azure Container Instances (ACI) which has just been announced General Available (GA) recently is a great choice for this concept.
Brendan Burns, co-founder of Kubernetes working at Microsoft, in his recent article “The Future of Kubernetes is Serverless” is talking about the evolution and the vision of Kubernetes regarding the Serverless Containers concept. He highlights one of the open source project initiative named Virtual Kubelet which allows you for example to have ACI as nodes rather than just Virtual Machine (VM). At the conference KubeCon + CloudNativeCon EU recently (May 2-5, 2018), Serverless Containers was a really popular topic as well.
An other new experimental project leveraging the Virtual Kubelet project has been made by the Azure IoT Edge team, check out the story.

Hope you have learned about Azure Kubernetes Service with this blog article. Now if you would like to get started, here are some resources you could leverage:
Enjoy!

Spotlight on God's Word and Not Your Problems

For whatever length of time that somebody stays in this world, issues, difficulties and issues will emerge.

For a Christian, it will come and the reason is basic: the fallen angel or satan's primary goal is to get the Christian to question reality of God's Word, the adequacy of God's Word and the energy of God's Word to determine all difficulties. So satan will toss all way of hindrances at a Christian to influence him or her to create unbelief.

In the event that the Christian shockingly acknowledges the obstructions as his destiny and inquiries God's capacity to take care of his issues, satan turns out to be exceptionally glad since that is the thing that he needs to accomplish.

Since we realize that satan is the reason for the world's inconveniences, what are we to do as Christians? We are to center exclusively around reality of God's Word in the Holy Bible.

You should acknowledge today that the more terrible thing that can happen to any person is passing. For whatever length of time that the individual is alive, there is trust and that expectation lies in Christ Jesus alone.

I have an uncle who once revealed to me that numerous years prior he took a choice, which was that any issue he couldn't take care of was not an issue and he would simply neglect it.

This man is more than 70 years old today and he is as yet sound and generous on the grounds that he never troubles himself about the issues of this life.

Dear companion, this is the manner by which it should be among us Christians. Stressing over your concern will never take it away. On the off chance that anything, stress would just exasperate the circumstance and cause you genuine medical issues.

Actually, what stress does is to open the way to satan to have a honest to goodness ideal to beset a Christian with malevolence, infection and malady.

Truly, I concur, the issue is genuine and it is there and obvious.

Nonetheless, please know today that when you focus on reality of God's Word concerning your circumstance, in addition to the fact that it would close the entryway against satan's profound assaults however it would move God to follow up on your faith in His Word, with the end goal of God keeping up the uprightness of His Word's adequacy and to celebrate His Holy Name.

The Holy Bible lets us know in Philippians 4:6-7, "Don't fuss or have any uneasiness about anything, however in each condition and in everything, by supplication and appeal (unequivocal solicitations), with thanksgiving, keep on making your needs known to God.

Furthermore, God's tranquility [shall be yours, that serene condition of a spirit guaranteed of its salvation through Christ, thus dreading nothing from God and being content with its natural parcel of whatever sort that will be, that peace] which rises above all comprehension should army and mount watch over your souls and psyches in Christ Jesus."

In the event that this is the thing that God has instructed us to do in His Word concerning each circumstance that goes up against us, at that point by all methods do what God has said as a proof that you trust Him.

At that point the tranquility of God that rises above all comprehension might be yours as expressed in His Word in Jesus' Name, Amen.

Dear companion, God made you and He cherishes you more than you can ever figure it out. It is just in Christ Jesus you can appreciate genuine peace and joy here on earth and be guaranteed of unceasing salvation in the great beyond.

You just can't go anyplace else.

If it's not too much trouble accept what God has let us know in His Word and you will get precisely the same God has guaranteed as long as you keep up your confidence in your soul and admit it verbally to initiate it profoundly for it to show physically.

Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. You can't achieve God aside from through Jesus Christ - John 14:6. It would be ideal if you swing to Him genuinely today before it is past the point of no return.

May the great Lord favor you as you regard His Word today, follow up on it and offer with others in Jesus' Mighty Name, Amen.


3 Proven Tips to Instantly Lower Stress

April is Stress Awareness Month. Dazzling. I believe you're most likely very much aware of the pressure you feel! What about a few hints to bring down it at this moment? Look at my best three beneath. I've figured out how to utilize these the most difficult way possible by being somebody who frequently feels focused and overpowered and is enthusiastic about genuine feelings of serenity.

Before you "pooh-pooh" them as excessively basic or irrelevant, look at the science behind why they work. At that point, try them out. It won't take long-and you'll be amazed at how much better you feel!

1. Erase!

We feel pressure when we think what we need to do or what will happen is excessively to deal with. The errands and occasions ahead appear as though they'll take a bigger number of assets than we have. Regardless of whether those assets are time, cash, vitality, or connections, we simply don't feel like we have enough to deal with what we're confronting.

The remedy?

Cut something out. Hit erase. Lessen your heap. Make the undertaking or occasion less demanding.

You truly don't need to do everything on your rundown. I know it feels like you need to do every one of these things, yet you don't. A few things you're intending to do aren't a best need. Along these lines, remove them out-right! On the off chance that something is extremely critical, it will return on your rundown. Something else, let it go until further notice.

Get out your rundown, or influence one, of all that you to think you need to do. At that point begin check things off. You can think of some on another rundown or in your date-book to do later. Keep just TOP PRIORITY RIGHT NOW things on your To Dos for now and sort out them in the request that bodes well.

I can see your shoulders dropped a couple of inches. Your weight is lighter. You don't need to hold up the entire world. It will continue turning. Simply do the couple of things that are top need for you today.

For what reason does this work? In the first place, it changes your impression of the amount you need to do-and, with regards to pressure, discernment is everything. Second, this sort of basic leadership enacts the official capacity in the prefrontal cortex of your mind. This hoses your dread reaction and encourages you feel more responsible for your life.

2. Close your eyes and feel your relaxing.

Since you've cleared a little space on your rundown, pause for a moment to deliberately unwind. It will sincerely take one moment. I know you need to get on to the following tip (at any rate that is the manner by which I am the point at which I'm perusing), however believe me, this will just pause for a moment and it will be justified, despite all the trouble.

Close your eyes and take a couple of moderate, profound, delicate breaths in and out through your nose just, feeling the impressions of breathing inside your body.

For what reason does this work? Shutting your eyes, breathing gradually, and feeling quieting inward sensations actuate your body's characteristic unwinding reaction. What's more, taking in and out through your nose adjusts the carbon dioxide levels in your body and increments nitric oxide creation. These gases unwind and widen your veins and bronchial sections conveying more oxygen to your cells. This revives your vitality and encourages you feel more calm.

Simply ahead and attempt this now. For only one moment, let go of everything else, close your eyes, and turn out to be totally caught up in the vibes of moderate, profound, delicate relaxing. That is around 5-8 breaths, contingent upon your pace. Do this, at that point return for tip number three.

3. Plan to complete one thing that makes you upbeat.

What do you jump at the chance to do that is simply agreeable, influences you to grin when you consider it, and makes you cheerful when you know you will do it?

What is that for you? It can be anything by any stretch of the imagination, regardless of whether it just pauses for a moment aside from it can't be business related. (As a Capricorn, I now and then attempt to fudge this one by picking a work assignment I appreciate. Rather, pick something only for satisfaction. For instance, I jump at the chance to play pool and take strolls in nature.)

Imagine a scenario where you did this for even a couple of minutes at the present time, at some point today, or set a firm intend to do it this week. How does this influence you to feel?

For what reason does this work? When you do things you appreciate, you discharge biochemicals, for example, dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins in your cerebrum that influence you to feel casual and cheerful.

Set a suggestion to hone these three hints as regularly as you require.

You could compose every one of the three on a sticky note, send yourself an email (with the SUBJECT: Delete, Breath, Enjoy!) and keep it at the highest point of your INBOX, set each of the three as "rehash occasions" in your calendar, or remind yourself in any capacity that works best for you.

On the off chance that you hone each of the three consistently, you'll discharge developed pressure and collect less pressure. You'll be more in contact with what is extremely imperative to you, more casual regardless of what you're doing, and anticipate getting a charge out of something uncommon. Would you be able to envision your life being more joyful and less distressing in the event that you made these tips a propensity?

Figure out how to develop a casual condition of being and an unmistakable centered personality in the book, "Clear Quiet Mind." Available on Amazon: Click Here For More Information

Kevin Schoeninger is an author and educator of Mind-Body preparing, including Mindfulness, Meditation, Qigong, and Reiki. He is the writer of the book "Clear Quiet Mind" and various guided reflections and projects in the field of individual strengthening and profound development.


Step by step instructions to Use Procrastination As Practice for Success

You may trust that achievement is tied in with thinking of extraordinary thoughts or doing the outlandish, however most achievement is the consequence of doing the commonplace. It's doing the things that nobody needs to do. Regardless of whether it's shedding pounds, showing signs of improvement work, doing admirably in school, or sparing a million dollars, the procedure is for the most part unenjoyable.

Much of the time, you realize what should be finished. The test is inspiring you to do it.

Managing viably with hesitation is motivating yourself to do things you would prefer not to do. It's great practice for figuring out how to wind up effective! On the off chance that you can crush your lingering, you can achieve pretty much anything.

Think about the typical procedure of hesitation:

1. You consider accomplishing something. Isn't that how you begin an assignment? You consider doing it.

2. You see how it feels. Each idea produces an inclination or feeling. When it feels right, we do the errand. That is the reason it's so natural to get off the lounge chair to get a sack of chips. It's not as simple to leave the lounge chair to go outside and paint the drains.

3. On the off chance that it feels wrong, you stay away from it. You have your own, reliable methods for diverting the assignment. Do you know what you do when you're stalling? Influence a rundown of the things you to do to maintain a strategic distance from obligation.

4. At the point when the sentiment putting it off feels more regrettable than the feeling of doing it, you at last make a move. You will in the end pay your charges, take out the waste, apply for a vocation, or work on your research project.

This is a complete procedure. Lamentably, it doesn't function admirably in case you're endeavoring to excel or to keep your life from slipping into tumult.

Attempt an elective technique for managing obnoxious undertakings:

1. When you feel frustrated about an occupation, get energized that you're being given a chance to learn achievement aptitudes. This is the minute that isolates the men from the young men and the ladies from the young ladies. The slightest effective individuals are the most noticeably awful slowpokes. Fruitful individuals do the hard things.

2. Pause for a moment. Simply sit with your sentiments and notice them. Sit with your distress. Close your eyes and inhale gradually. Notice where you feel the aggravation. Is it in your mind? Your chest? Stomach? Endeavor to unwind that territory of your body and discharge the strain.

3. Burn through five minutes doing the errand you need to maintain a strategic distance from. Anybody can deal with only five minutes. Beginning is the hardest part, to end up a specialist on beginning! You'll regularly find that you'll proceed past your five-minute objective. Salute yourself for enduring no less than five minutes.

4. Excuse yourself for coming up short. Some days you win, others you lose. Working through inconvenience and vanquishing dawdling is a testing expertise to learn. Simply get back on the stallion and promise to continue attempting.

Stalling is an exceptionally human propensity. Little uncertainty its starting points were useful. Poor choices could be deplorable 100,000 years back. Our brains must be completely persuaded that a thought was deserving of execution before it would enable us to act.

Accomplishing something today that is unenjoyable doesn't bode well on the off chance that it can be postponed until some other time.

Choose for yourself that correct now is that time. Utilize your desire to delay as fuel for figuring out how to be effective.

Microsoft //build 2018, my Cloud Application Development highlights

Every year I'm really excited about 2 main public Microsoft conferences we have: Microsoft Connect() in November and Microsoft //build in May. It's always a lot of exciting announcements and important time for getting the fresh and future vision of Microsoft. Here is an example of the updates and announcements which happened during the Microsoft Connect() 2017 edition.
This week was the Microsoft //build 2018 in Seattle on May 7-9. Did you attend it in person or did you watch the keynotes and sessions remotely? Being there in person is such a great experience to receive information live but also meeting with people: customers, partners and product teams. I highly encourage you to attend in person at least once in your life! ;)

I won't cover everything announced but as an introduction here are some resources you should check out for the general vision and key points of this edition:
This year I watched remotely live and on-demand sessions. I would like to share my Cloud Application Development highlights with you through this blog article.
For a more complete list of announcements in details, feel free to check out my associated monthly blog article at the end of May 2018 or start playing yet with the associated chat Bot.

Cheers!

Give the First-fruits to God: An Amazingly Important Lesson for the Young ©

This morning I encountered one of the great lessons I have learned in life.  It comes just weeks before my seventy-fifth birthday. Given the lesson, my age makes it all the more poignant. I have been studying the prayers in the Old Testament and this morning I came to Deuteronomy 26.  It is a bit complicated, but let me see if I can simplify it for you, to make the lesson apparent.

The Lord delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage and brought them, after forty years of wandering to kill off the old disbelievers and unfaithful, to the Promised Land. Now he instructed Israel that on the day after the festival of the Passover a sheaf of the  “first-fruits” of the harvest should be offered to God as a thanksgiving offering on behalf of the people generally. (See Lev. 23:10-ff.) In the early verses of Deuteronomy 26 the Lord instructs individuals to gather a basket of the first-fruits at the end of the harvest season as a thank offering. They are to bring it to the designated spot, probably the tabernacle or later the temple.  Certain prayers of thanksgiving are to be offered.  Tithing is to be paid on the harvest and additional prayers to be offered. The question arises, “Why does the Lord want us to give him the first-fruits?”

As I read some commentary on this chapter the point was made that the first-fruit offering was intended to be the best. It was young, tender, tasty, and nourishing. It was the best of the harvest and the best was for God. We have heard this often–that the best is for God. And there are good reasons that the first-fruits are given as a thanksgiving offering. First, it acknowledges that God is the giver of all the good things which support and sustain life. Second, we are to learn to give the best to God, even of those very things which we have anticipated and looked forward to all season. We glorify God and serve him first. This requires discipline and self-denial. These are wonderful and powerful ideas when it comes to worshiping God and thanking him for his blessings.

But there is a third lesson–and this is the lesson that was new and powerful to me. It comes from a commentary by a man named Matthew Henry. He was a believer–a real believer, and he had an extraordinary sensitivity to the Gospel and its teachings. I have learned to love him and his writings. They always instruct and edify me. And significantly, they are always attended by a special tender and sweet spirit, something I have found to be unusual in many commentaries. Here is what he said:
To give God the first and best we have .... Those that consecrate the days of their youth, and the prime of their time, to the service and honour of God, bring him their first-fruits, and with such offerings he is well pleased.(1)
Note please the application this has for the young–teenagers, young adults, young marrieds. To “consecrate the days of their youth”–the first-fruits–to God. And to consecrate the” prime of their time”--the first-fruits of time to God. Such actions by the young are noble and righteous acts of gratitude, consecration and worship. They acknowledge that all they have, including youth, energy, gifts and talents, come from God and they are only returning to him what is rightfully his.(1 Chron. 29:14; Ps. 24:1; D&C 104:17) The truth of this idea struck me as both self-evident and powerful. Unlike ninety-three-year-old Russell M. Nelson, as a seventy-five year old man my contributions are minimal. Recently I was released from serving as a sealer in the Logan Temple. Health issues were one of the main reasons.  From such a perspective I have a greater sense of the necessity of consecrating one’s youth to God, his church and kingdom.  

It would be a great blessing for the young of the Church to have this perspective. In late evening talks with the missionaries of my office staff in the California Roseville Mission we often discussed the “wasted youth” syndrome. Young men often spent great amounts of time practicing sports–I used to tell of boys in the parking lot of our church behind our house practicing skate boarding moves hours on end. Contrast that with the amount of time any of them spent preparing for a mission by reading and memorizing scripture. The comparison is stark and scary. Today similar problems arise with young men and some young women who are addicted to their personal devices and waste huge amounts of time surfing, socializing, and playing games on the Net.

I have also noticed in most wards I have lived in the past fifty years that the older High Priests do the family history and attend the temple. Many young couples argue that they are “too busy” to do those things–that will have to come later. So, when we have “ward temple days” the younger set are often conspicuously absent. But they can get to the basketball and football games, the latest movies, put prodigious amounts of time into careers, and make time for regular vacations. Remember the “Rich young ruler”? He had lots of money and authority and wanted to know what “good thing” he needed to do to be saved? (Mt. 19:16) His question was nearly perfect–except there is not just one thing one can do. The Lord took him seriously, in fact Mark says that Jesus “beholding him loved him.” (Mk. 10:21) The young man was told to sell all that he had, give it to the poor and follow Jesus. He had the opportunity to give the first-fruits–the best he had in resources, leadership, influence, time, energy, dedication, thought, and commitment, but he went away sorrowing because “he had great possessions.” Because of other priorities he squandered the opportunity to give the first-fruits.

Think about the energy, enthusiasm, strength, and quick minds of the young. No wonder the Lord want’s the first-fruits. Many have given them. Jesus is the prime and divine example. The most important life and act in the cosmos was completed by age thirty-three! Joseph Smith finished his mission at age thirty-eight. Remember young David, Samuel, and Mormon. All givers of the first-fruits par excellence. Alma taught his son Helaman to “learn wisdom in thy youth.”(Al. 37:35.) What greater wisdom can one learn than to give God the best and do it when you are young, healthy, energetic, and all your brain cells hitting on all six? What greater wisdom than to give God the first-fruits?

I urge the youth–most of my grand children fit here–high school and college age kids, young adults, returned missionaries and young marrieds (especially those from the CRM), to get a testimony that the Lord wants your “first-fruits” offering and then redouble your commitment to see that he gets it.

Let’s think together again, soon.

Notes:  

1.  Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, new modern edition in six volumes, (n. p.: Hendrickson’s Publishers, Inc., 1991), 1:647, emphasis added.