August 21, 2007

Bitter or Better


I've been writing quite a lot about some experiences in my life. Some of them have been funny. Some happy, and some downright tragic.
I think all of us have that in common. Life is not always "just a bowl of cherries" as the old song goes, so we've all had our share of good and bad, and have had the tragedy, too.
Some of us allow what's happened in the past to color every aspect of our lives. Some, more than others, because we are all different in our emotional makeup, and much of it is a result of our particular background, or upbringing.
I went to a therapist once, and he was amazed at the fact that I wasn't mad about anything. "Why aren't you mad?" he kept asking. "You should be mad. You have every right to be mad!"
But I wasn't. I'm not. I don't know why. Maybe, it is just because I am a forgiving person. Maybe, it is because I understand that people, for the most part, do the best they can. It may not always be the best, just the best that they can do. How they live their lives, and how they treat us, is a direct result of their own upbringing. It is a cycle that is sometimes broken, but sometimes it isn't.
Maybe, it is because I understand that we can't change our past. We can't change the fact that people don't always love us, or think well of us. Maybe, it is because, in spite of everything that happened to me in my past, I decided to become better, rather than bitter.
Much of what we feel, on a daily basis, is a direct result of how we react to the way others treat us. I read somewhere that life is ten percent of what happens to us, and ninty per cent, how we react to it. That's a choice that we can make.
I have to admit, though, that sometimes my "reactor" just doesn't want to cooperate with me...so maybe I am angrier than I realize!
I hate to think that this is so.

Iraq

No matter what your political, or religious persuasion may be, I think that you will find this intersting.

The Garden of Eden was in Iraq.

The cradle of civilizatiion was in Mesopotamia, which is now Iraq.

Noah built the ark in Iraq.

The Tower of Babel was in Iraq.

Abraham was from Ur, which is in Southern Iraq.

Isaac's wife, Rebekah, was from Nahor, which is in Iraq.

Assyria, which captured the ten tribes of Israel, is in Iraq.

Babylon, which destroyed Israel, is in Iraq.

Daniel was in the lion's den in Iraq.

The three Hebrew children were in the fiery furnace in Iraq.

Belshazzar, the King of Babylon, saw the "writing on the wall" in Iraq.

Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, carried the Jews captive into Iraq.

Ezekiel preached in Iraq.

Peter preached in Iraq.

The "Empire of Man," described in Revelation, in the bible, is called Babylon, which is a city in Iraq.

Israel is the most mentioned nation in the bible, the second most often mentioned is Iraq, however, Iraq is not the name that is used in the bible.

The names used in the Bible for Iraq are Babylon, the Land of Shinar, and Mesopotamia.

Mesopotamia means "between the two rivers," more precisely, between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers.

The name Iraq means, "country with deep roots" and is a very significant country in the Bible.

No other country, except Israel, has more history and prophecy associated with it than Iraq.

The symbol representing America is an eagle, which makes this verse from the Koran, the Islamic Bible, rather interesting:

Koran (9:11) For it is written that a son of Arabia would awaken a fearsome Eagle. The wrath of the Eagle would be felt throughout the lands of Allah, and lo, while some of the people trembled in despair, still more rejoiced, for the wrath of the Eagle cleansed the lands of Allah.

And there was peace.

Another irony? The particular verse in the Koran, 9:11

Just something to ponder.

Postscript:

A reader brought to my attention that the informatiion, while implying that the verse quoted from the Koran refers to the military action in Iraq, that it is actually a hoax.

Here's the link: Koran 9:11 refers to the war in iraq?-Fiction!