Daniel Skognes

It seems like a lot of people in this world are stuck in the wilderness, looking for the Promise Land.  They are seeking the “pot of gold” at the end of the rainbow, but never seem to find it.  They are like gypsies.  No home, never settled, always seeking, never landing.  No roots.

In 1901, Russell Conwell wrote a book called, Acres of Diamonds. Considered by many to be one of the finest speeches ever written, Acres of Diamonds offers lessons about the rewards of work, education, and finding the riches of life in one’s own back yard. I highly recommend that you read this book.  It is a great lesson in life.

Perhaps you know people like this:

• People that can’t keep a job for long.  They are always moving on to the next gig.
• People that can’t keep a relationship going.  They are always moving on to the next relationship, changing friendships and even marriages like we change our socks.
• People that don’t know what they believe, so they are always moving on to the next spiritual guru.

What is going on here?  There is a common under-current that seems to flow in all of this.  It is a spirit of discontentment.  I believe many people miss the Promise Land because they have not learned the Principle of Blooming Where You Are Planted.

This Principle simply stated, is that we need to take root wherever we are.  We need to be watered and nourished.  Then we need to grow. In growing, we give back.

Principle 1. If you have no roots, it is impossible to grow. Activity for the sake of activity does not equal success, it just makes you tired, frustrated, depressed, and broke. Allow yourself to grow by seeking activities that are positive and that have roots.

Principle 2.  In order to establish roots, you have to give it time.  Impatience is the enemy of growing.  It takes time for the roots to get established in your business, your relationships, your finances, your spiritual life.  Growth does not happen overnight…unless you are a Chia Pet (and those don’t last long) LOL.

Principle 3.  The Promise Land may very well be the place that you are now.  You just don’t see it because of your impatience and ingratitude.  Start by being thankful for what you have and where you are.  We don’t always get to choose our circumstances, but we can choose how we respond to them.  Have an attitude of gratitude. You don’t have to give thanks for all things, but you can give thanks IN all things.

May your roots be established. May you be nourished to grow strong, healthy, wealthy, and wise.  And most of all, may you grow to give back. That is the circle of life.  If you want to truly live, take root, grow, and give.

Shalom!

Dan Skognes

Sorry for the play on words, but it came to me today that a lot of people are suffering from an identity crisis.  When we are born, we are given a name and raised in an environment not of our choosing.  We did not choose our parents and we did not choose where we would be born.

Many of the homes today are single parent homes.  That creates havoc on our identity because we are missing one of the foundations that we are supposed to learn from.  Add to that the blended homes and that further confuses the situation because we now have a Mom or Dad that inherited the children, and they have to parent them.  Not an easy task when you are talking about various temperaments and a variety of ages. Discipline is problematic because there is no bond and many times no respect.

How confusing is this for a child?  Add to that, they may feel angry and guilty about the fact that their parent is single, or that they can’t seem to get along with the new spouse, or that the parents are just plain cruel to them.  Wow.  What a mess.

Every family has a knucklehead.  If you don’t know who it is, look in the mirror.  Everyone else knows who it is.  LOL.  The point is, every family is dysfunctional to a degree because we are all imperfect people trying to live with other imperfect people.  We are carrying baggage that we have had since childhood, so we find ourselves doing the very things that we hated that were done to us.  That is a pretty sick situation and will continue unless we break the cycle.

Add to this that women (in particular) feel a responsibility for their children to be happy.  This is part of the nurturing that a woman has been gifted with.  Of course, it is a parent’s responsibility to love and protect and provide for a child, but where it gets perverted is when shame and guilt are placed on the parent (usually the Mom) when the child is not happy. Happiness is circumstantial.  It comes and it goes based on circumstances.

Good grief.   Is there ANY HOPE for ANY of us??? Yes. Absolutely. Here are a few of the points I have learned along the road of life.  Some I have experienced myself, and some I have observed second-hand.

Point 1. Joy, not happiness, is what we need.  Joy lasts when we have Shalom.  Perfect peace and joy go hand in hand.  Joy is the expression and outgrowth of the peace that we can embrace when we are going through the trials of life. 

Point 2.  Everyone( including me and you) is wounded.  We all carry wounds from childhood.  Most of the time we mask it or refuse to admit that it is even part of us, but that does not make it go away.  Unfortunately, the Father wounds seem to be the deepest and the hardest to heal.  The good news is, they can be healed, but you have to acknowledge them before the process can begin.  Forgiveness is the first step in healing.

Point 3. Our identity is incomplete if we never come to the understanding of who we are as a child of God.  We are created in His image and have our identity in HIM.  If we could just get that one point in our hearts and minds, it would change everything.  The problem is when we don’t acknowledge God, or we try to have our own identity apart from Him.  How many people have you known that try to get their identity from another person?  They are always needy because no person can fill the void that only God can fill.  We are born with an identity, but it gets pretty messed up along the way, even in the best of families.  What we need is a Re-born Identity.  When we are Re-born, we can put away the old self and become fully alive to be who we were created to be.  That is accomplished in one way, Jesus.  He is the one who makes us acceptable in God’s sight.  This is a difficult thing to understand.  There is nothing we have to DO.  We just have to BELIEVE.  We have to have FAITH in HIM, and ask HIM into our hearts.  That is the miracle of God’s grace. 

My hope is that you have this type of relationship with God….our Heavenly Father.  He is the perfect Dad, by the way.   He loves you and will always be there for you.  Always.  The question is, will you get to know your Heavenly Father?  Will you trust Him?  I pray that you do.  We have enough dysfunctional people in this world already.  Let’s agree to have a Re-born Identity.  The other one does not work so well, does it?

Shalom!

Dan Skognes

Every generation has probably used that term at one point or another.  It probably went something like this, “In times like this, we need leadership.”  Or, “In times like this, we need someone to bail us out.”  Or, “In times like this, we need to take action.”

Sounds pretty needy, doesn’t it?  Well, that is because we ARE needy.  We need to know that the chaos we find ourselves in called life is going to somehow, some way, settle down and the pieces of the puzzle come together.

We need to know that our life matters, that our life has significance.  We need to know that we will be missed when we are gone.

I went to a church for 13 years (many years ago) and was very involved in the church.  I taught a Bible Study and was there every Sunday.  When the pastor that I had grown to love retired, a new pastor came in, and it was his way or the highway.  So, I, along with half of the congregation took to the road.  I was not bitter or angry, I just had a different vision and opinion of where I needed to be worshiping and the direction that the church was going was different from mine. I did not want to cause trouble for the new pastor, so I left.

About two years later I got an interesting call. It was somebody in the adult department calling to check on me.  I told the fellow that I had been gone for two years, and they just now missed me?  Wow.  That was embarrassing for him…and amazing to me.  We all want to be missed, don’t we?

In times like these, we need to do some things to stay on course.

First:  When someone goes AWOL, call them right away.  Let them know they were missed.  If it were you, you would want someone to notice, right?

Second: When you find yourself needy, look up.  We tend to wait till things get totally crazy before we ask God for help, but He is there, ready, willing, and able to help us.

Third: We need to keep perspective when our world does not make sense.  When things are spinning out of control, get off the merry-go-round.  Allow quiet to calm your heart.   My quiet time is at 3:30 A.M.  No dogs barking, no TV blaring, nobody else awake in the house.  Just me and God. Ask God to speak to you, to guide you, and to give you peace in the storms you are going through.  There is a perfect peace at the eye of a hurricane.  God is the eye in your hurricane.

Fourth: Don’t give up.  It is so easy to quit when times are tough.  You know the old saying, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going?”  I hate that saying.  It is ridiculous to say to someone, “Get tough,” especially if they are going under for the 3^rd time.  We need to be giving them a life preserver.  We need to be helping them out of their chaos.  We need to meet THEIR need.

So, in times like these, we need to focus, to give, and forgive.  We need to cling to hope and faith, and love.  And the greatest of these is…….love.

Shalom!

Dan Skognes

Click Here: Amazing Grace

This is what makes life worth living.

Shalom!

Dan Skognes

Click here:  Who Am I

Possibly one of the best songs ever written about hope.  Your life matters.  God said so.

Shalom!

Dan Skognes

Who is the voice that cries out in the dark where nobody hears the words?

Is anybody listening?

Does anybody care?

The voice is crying out, begging, pleading, desperate to be heard.

Is anybody out there?

Does anybody care?

The voice cries out for justice and mercy, but the words cannot be heard.

For the mouth that could have spoken

Is now beneath the dirt.

The voices are many that go unheard

Unborn babies that cry to be heard

And those innocent people who were in the wrong place

Who is the voice of those crying?

Is anybody listening?

Does anybody care?

Will someone speak up and give lips to their words?

Or will they just vanish in the air?

Shalom!

Dan Skognes

Trayvon Martin vs George Zimmerman.  Has anyone in America or the world, for that matter, not heard about this tragedy.  You know what?  I am so MAD.  But I am not mad at George Zimmerman.  I am not mad at Trayvon Martin. I am MAD at what has happened to our country.

This used to be a place where people cared about each other, where everything was not a racial issue, where everything was not another reason to cry out for gun control. What has happened to our country?  We are a sick society.  We need a Doctor, and we need him now!

We live in a society where we are going to blame somebody for what is happening.  You can blame Trayvon, or you can blame George.  Either way, you miss the point.  This is not a matter of blaming a person.  This goes much deeper than that.  It goes to a character flaw.  It goes to a spiritual flaw.  It goes to a moral flaw.

I am SO MAD.  Am I the only person who sees that we are in spiritual warfare?  This is not a battle of flesh and blood.  This is a battle against the unseen spirits who war against our souls.  They seek to steal, kill, and destroy.  Have they not accomplished all of this with one fell swoop?

Do you remember the famous quote from Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along?”  Apparently the answer is a resounding NO. I am MAD that we have chosen to cross the lines.  I am MAD that we choose to think the worst of other.  I am MAD that we choose not to forgive.

How in the world are we going to survive and live together in a multi-cultural and multi-faith country if we have chosen to take the low road when it comes to conflicts?  Life is complicated for most of us.

I think this sinking ship can be saved, but only if we plug the holes that are flooding.

First Hole To Fix: We have to plug the hole of racism.  Please quit making race an issue in every conflict.  Very simply, it is not.

Second Hole To Fix: Don’t believe everything you hear or read in the media.  Remember that the media is interested in keeping the story alive…no matter if it is truthful or not.  I realize there are good reporters out there and networks that seek to tell the truth.  The problem is, for every good one, there seems to be a dozen that are stretching the truth to the limits that even someone locked up in a funny farm would say, “That is crazy!”

Third Hole To Fix: Violence begets violence.  Live by the sword, die by the sword.  Learn the lesson.  If you live for revenge, just remember that if you believe an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, simply means everyone ends up blind and toothless. What goes around comes around.  Change the cycle by returning good for evil. You won’t be able to do that in your own strength.  Our human nature wants revenge.  God’s nature allows you to forgive and give grace.  That is the cool thing about grace.  Nobody deserves it.  Not you, not me.  But that is exactly what God gives us…and he wants us to give each other….grace.

You want to change this world to be a better place.  Take a look at the man in the mirror.  It starts with each of us fixing ourselves. We have to take responsibility for our own actions.  If we can just do that and fix ourselves, we have hope.  Hope is kept alive as long as one person, yes, even one is willing to make a change.  Let’s keep hope alive.

Shalom!

Dan Skognes

My wife and I were invited to a post wedding celebration.  We would have been invited to the wedding, but the bride and groom got married in Cypress.  He is from the United States, and she is from Israel.

They were a lovely young couple, but the thing that struck me was the character of the young man.  I heard him talk about God and how God had revealed Himself to him at such an early age.  He literally had a vision at age 14 that he was going to go to Israel and find a wife there some day.  At that age, I think I was still watching the Three Stooges.  LOL.

There were two Bible women that he found fascinating and was attracted to at a very early age.  One was Queen Esther, and one was Hadasah, who had a servants’ heart.  He asked God to give him a Queen Esther….and a woman like Hadasah, who had a servants’ heart.  He did not know at the time that Hadasah is actually one of the translations for the name Esther.

So when he got older, he ventured to Israel to find his bride.  Through God’s divine intervention he was directed to her.  She did not know it yet, but he knew pretty quickly that she was the one.  They formally dated only seven days (seven, by the way, is the perfect number in the Bible), before he told her that they were to be married and he proposed.

In that seven day period, they connected heart to heart.  Before that she had been asking God to give her a husband.  She made a covenant with God that she was going to go to the market to buy flowers every Friday until God brought her husband to her.  One particular week God told Zak to bring her flowers.  He thought, “Women like, flowers.  That is a good idea.”  He did not know the significance of the flowers. But, he bought them and gave them to her.

During one of their evenings of courting as they were talking, God prompted him to tell her that he was supposed to buy her flowers every Friday.  He did not want to mess things up with her and talk about flowers!  This is not what they were talking about, and it had been going well up until this point.  Anyway, long story short, he finally told her, “I don’t know why I am supposed to tell you this, but God told me that I am supposed to bring you flowers every Friday.”

They were in a fancy restaurant.  She threw both hands in the air and let out a yelp.  People around them were startled as they stared at the young couple.  When she told him of her covenant with God, he threw his hands in the air and let out a yelp.  People were wondering what the heck this couple was drinking, I am sure. This was the confirmation for them that the timing was perfect.  This was God’s will.

God confirmed in both of them that this was a blessing as only He can do.  God has a great sense of humor.  I can see him watching all this and just smiling and thinking, “This is going to be GOOD.”

Soon after, they were married.  Since she was Jewish and he was Protestant, they could not get married in Israel, so they got married in Cypress.  They now reside in Israel.

Zack, the groom, is so much like his father Clint.  I know Clint very well.  We have been friends for many years and he is one of the finest men I know. He is a man after God’s own heart.  Clint has a passion for serving the Lord and living his life for Him. He is one of the most joyous people you will ever meet.  He always has a good word when he meets you, and he loves to hug.  When he gives me a greeting, it is like getting a hug from God.

Clint’s son has his father’s character.  I can see that in him.  The old saying is, “The apple does not fall far from the tree.”  Usually that is used in a negative context about someone, but in this case, it is a perfect example of the tree that bore good fruit.  Zack has his father’s character.  I see Clint in him. How beautiful is that as an example of what a father – son relationship is supposed to look like?  How beautiful is that as an example of what a family is supposed to look like?  They love one another.  They honor one another.  They both live for God first and foremost.

During the celebration that my wife and I were invited to, we had dinner, we sang hymns, and people that knew the young couple spoke blessings over them.  It was wonderful to be there and experience God’s presence and the blessing of this young couple.

All I can tell you is that when my wife and I were driving home after the celebration we both marveled at what we had witnessed.  Oh, and by the way, the bride’s name?  Esther.

P.S.   They shared with us that they are expecting their first child.  What a legacy that child has been brought in to.  Can you imagine the great things that child will accomplish?

P.S.S.  I forgot to mention that Clint’s dad loves God.  Funny how that works, huh?

Shalom!

Dan Skognes

Defeat is part of life, just like winning, but nobody wants to be defeated.  Whether you are an athlete, a businessman, a politician, serve in the military, or you are just an everyday Joe, you want to win.  Everything inside you desires to have one in the win column.  The stronger the drive you have to win, the more you have to lose.

Winning vs. losing is affected by how you handled your last win or loss.  Were you elated over the win to the point that you took things for granted and became lazy, thus setting yourself up for a loss?  Were you despondent over a defeat to the point that you just threw up your hands and gave up trying?  Either way, that is unhealthy and self-defeating.

Here are some practical tips when you experience a defeat:

Tip 1.  Losing a battle is different from losing a war.  Plan for the next battle and adjust to make sure that you have the resources, energy, focus, and determination to win. Don’t go into a gun fight with a knife. Don’t try to take on an army by yourself.  Don’t go into battle without the energy you need to fight.  Make sense?

Tip 2.  Evaluate why you lost and learn from your mistakes.  If you don’t change what you are doing, how can you expect different results?

Tip 3.  Don’t give up.  When you have experienced defeat, the taste of victory is that much sweeter.  Focus on your goal and don’t let temporary setbacks keep you down.

Tip 4.  Have a coach and a cheerleader.  If you have someone that can help you see clearly and put things in perspective, it helps.  We all need a kick in the butt occasionally or someone to just say, “Snap out of it!” Of course, we need encouragement and support as well. A good coach will keep you on track, and the cheerleader will help you stay motivated.  They both have their place on your team.

Tip 5.  Keep things in perspective.  Sometimes we are our own worst enemy by making mountains out of molehills.  Don’t become a drama queen where EVERYTHING is a “Woe is me” moment.  Little things have a way of escalating if you let them.  Don’t let them!

Defeats can be a good thing if you learn from them, become energized by them, and use them to motivate you forward.  Next time you face a defeat, put it in perspective and see what you can do to make something positive out of it.  Just doing that will improve your win/loss ratio.

I hope you turn the defeats you face into points of grace.

Shalom!

Dan Skognes

You Can’t Blame Someone For Walking Away If You Didn’t Do Anything To Make Them Stay

Step  1.  Lie to the customer.  That is probably the easiest way to alienate a client.

Step  2. Take your customer for granted.  Assume they will be your customer for life even if you never talk to them after the initial sale.

Step  3. Bad mouth your competitors.  That never goes over well and only diminishes you in the eyes of your client.

Step  4. Make your client wait for YOU.  After all it is all about YOU, right? Keep the client waiting and don’t follow up in the time frame that you committed to.

Step  5. Don’t follow up on your client’s questions and concerns.  This will let them know that you really don’t care about them.

Step  6. Promise things to your client that you know you can’t deliver. This will buy you time, but it always catches up with you.

Step  7. Don’t know what you are talking about, and never admit that you don’t know the answers.  Tell them what they want to hear…the truth is irrelevant.  Right?

Step  8. Go for the close before you have established relationship.  That makes a lot of sense, don’t you think?

Step  9. Make the client feel stupid for asking questions.  After all, YOU are the expert.

Step 10.Try to pressure the client into making a decision.  If they don’t like and trust you….forget about it.

I know there are probably a thousand ways that we can lose a client, but these are some pretty easy things to fix.  Clients are a lot more savvy than we give them credit for.  Be humble. Be a servant.  Be the person that your client is praising to all of their friends.  By the way, people are more apt to tell their friends about a bad experience than a good experience.  So when you have mistreated your client, guess what?  They probably told ten of their friends what you did or did not do. 

My hope is that you make every effort to put the client’s needs first and foremost.  If you do that, the rest of those problems just go away.  It is all about serving others…not self.  Let customers know that you value them as clients….mean it, and show them that you mean it.  Seeing is believing.

Shalom!

Dan Skognes