I love the record of Moroni as found in the 12th chapter of Ether in the Book of Mormon. Moroni laments his weakness in writing and worries that we will not accept what he writes.

The Lord tells him this:

"26 ...my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness;

27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

Finally Moroni concludes with this:

"41 And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever. Amen."

Let us seek Jesus every day. Let us listen to and study the words of His apostles and prophets. Let us be partakers of His grace, that our struggle with our weaknesses will allow the Lord to make us strong.

Take a look at the glasses through which you see the world. Examine your own bias, your personal astigmatism. Adjust your correction from time to time by questioning what it is you see and how you see it. The world can be a surprising place if we're willing to see it in a new way.

When we step into the light of Christ, we break free of the shadows of sorrow, depression, failure and sin. There in that light our soul absorbs the power of the Son through the gift of His Atonement. He suffered all that mortality has ever caused all of us to suffer, individually and infinitely. 

Because He knows exactly what we are going though, He can make our burdens light when we take His yoke upon ourselves, when we step into His light and bask in the glow of knowing that we are not alone, that we are loved and worthy of love!

Come unto Christ, all you who labor under the burdens of mortality, and He will give you rest. He will give you living water to drink and soothe your tired soul. In His hands you will find the loving embrace of one who truly does know exactly how you feel. And He made it through. You are not alone. He will never abandon you.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of hearing one of the best sermons I've ever heard from a pulpit. I was visiting the services held for the residents of the care center where my dad is now being cared for because of advanced Alzheimer's disease. Mom and I and two of my children were there with Dad. 

The speaker was an old rancher who apologized for his lack of experience in religious speaking and knowledge of scripture and doctrine. Instead he said he would talk about cows because that's what he knows. He said cows are a lot like people.

He told a story of when he was nearly 12 years old and assigned the responsibility of moving the herd from winter range in the valley to summer range on the mountain. He was excited to be named trail boss as his only hand was another boy a few months younger than himself. The two boys were to get the herd to a midway point where they would meet the older boy's dad who would help them finish the drive.

Eager to show his dad how good of a cowboy he could be, the young trail boss worked very hard to keep all the cows on the road and moving along perfectly. His horse was doing a lot of work and once the two boys arrived at the midpoint, the horse had worked up a lather of sweat.

As the boys ate their breakfast, brought by the dad, the cows and horses rested. Before getting started up the mountain again, the father took his son aside and told him, "Son, a good cowboy doesn't work his horse on cows that are headed in the right direction."

Our speaker said he has thought about that wisdom his entire life. He continued with the story, indicating that when they got the cows moving again, he noticed that most of them were heading in the right direction. Some would wander a little off the road. Some would take a little shortcut when the road turned. 

When they arrived at the gate to the winter range, he had to ride up ahead of the herd to open the gate so the cows could go through. He opened the gate and looked back. There were about a dozen trails leading to the gate from all directions made from so many previous years. He realized that most of the cows were always going in the right direction generally and would eventually get to the gate from one direction or another.

He told us that people are like those cows and the gate is like baptism and other ordinances of the gospel. Many of us wander by the wayside, but as long as we're headed in the right direction, the Lord through His grace will help us get through the gate. 

So if you're riding herd on your kids or others in your life who need to get through the gates, you ought to take it easier when they are heading in the right direction. Just follow along and keep 'em going toward the gate. The Lord will do the rest.

Nephi left Jerusalem with his family 600 years before Christ was born, his father Lehi leading them. Years later after recording the "things of the ministry" including many prophecies and the words of Isaiah as well as Nephi's brother Jacob, he leaves us with this firm testimony and promise.

2 Nephi 33 (The Book of Mormon)

10 And now, my beloved brethren, and also Jew, and all ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good.

11 And if they are not the words of Christ, judge ye—for Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory, that they are his words, at the last day; and you and I shall stand face to face before his bar; and ye shall know that I have been commanded of him to write these things, notwithstanding my weakness.

12 And I pray the Father in the name of Christ that many of us, if not all, may be saved in his kingdom at that great and last day.

13 And now, my beloved brethren, all those who are of the house of Israel, and all ye ends of the earth, I speak unto you as the voice of one crying from the dust: Farewell until that great day shall come.

14 And you that will not partake of the goodness of God, and respect the words of the Jews, and also my words, and the words which shall proceed forth out of the mouth of the Lamb of God, behold, I bid you an everlasting farewell, for these words shall condemn you at the last day.

15 For what I seal on earth, shall be brought against you at the judgment bar; for thus hath the Lord commanded me, and I must obey. Amen.

Let us believe in Christ. Let us hearken to his words. Let us pray to the Father in his name. Let us partake of his goodness, of the atoning sacrifice he made for us. He knows our sorrows. Let us set aside our sins and take upon ourselves his yoke. He pulls harder than any man. And if we do, life and its many burdens will be made lighter, easier. And we will meet him again and fall down at his feet to worship him, our tears bathing the prints of the nails in his feet. And he will gently pull us up to with strong arms to receive his loving embrace and hear the words, "Well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into my rest."

AWS Architecture and Azure Architecture sites provide a variety of resources for architects including reference architectures. With AWS you get a brief one page PDF diagram for each scenario. With Azure you get a more in-depth documentation style following the infographic. Here are two examples. The first is an AWS financial services grid computing architecture.

The second here is an Azure machine learning architecture.

The reference architectures and additional architectural helps provided by your cloud provider can be very valuable.

And here's the BUT.

But you should not simply copy and paste. Use these guidelines to provide you with ideas and help you to think of things that you are missing in your own cloud architecture solutions. Take the good ideas and use a skeptical eye to pick and choose what works best for your organization's use cases.

Think of it as if you're building a car. Do you look at how other cars are built? Or do you put on blinders and make the same mistakes as everyone else had to make before you came along?

I've been laid off and the reasons don't matter. It's just business. My last official day is tomorrow. My soon-to-be former employer has a product that enterprises need and good people to back it up. Happily the future is bright and there are opportunities in the world of technology for the taking.

I'm excited for the future and know that soon I'll be doing something new, interesting and challenging. The friends and colleagues I leave behind will do well in the technology economy no matter where they go.

It's a prosperous time to live if you have valued technical skills. I'm grateful for all of the experience I've had that has brought me to this point. I look forward to utilizing it to help other organizations solve their technology problems and advance their organizational goals.

I believe that whatever changes the future holds, I will continue to blog from time to time and work on my personal OSS projects. Stay tuned.

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught, “Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 255–56).

I believe him.