Reasons To Say 'I Don't'

I found this article published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer by: Melinda P. Magsino in PDI - Youngblood SectionThursday, July 15, 1999. I found it somewhat satirical so am sharing it to you through this post.


After the month of June when brides and grooms said nothing but "I do," it is time to ponder upon the 25 reasons one should say "I don't":

1. Marriage is not a word. It is a sentence - a life sentence.
2. Marriage is very much like a violin: after the sweet music is over, the strings are attached.
3. Marriage is love, and love is blind. Therefore marriage is an institution for the blind.
4. Marriage is an institution where in a man loses his bachelor's degree and a woman gets her master's.
5. Marriage puts a ring on a man and a woman's finger and two under their eyes.
6. Marriage certificate is just another word for a working permit.
7. Marriage is not having a wife or a husband, but also worries inherited forever.
8. Marriage requires four types of rings: the engagement ring, the wedding ring, suffer-ring and endu-ring.
9. Married life is full of excitement and frustration: in the first year of marriage, the man speaks and the woman listens. In the second year, the woman speaks and the man listens. And in the third, both of them speak and the neighbors listen.
10. If it is true that love is blind, marriage is definitely an eye-opener.
11. Getting married is very much like going to a restaurant with friends; you order what you want, and when you see that the other girls have, you wish you ordered that.
12. It is true that all men are born equal. But some pf them get married and then life becomes unfair.
13. There was this man who muttered a few words in church and found himself divorced.
14. A happy marriage is a matter of giving and taking: the wife gives her all and the husband takes.
15. Son: How much does it take to get married, Dad? Father: I don't know son, I'm still paying for it. Son: Is it true, Dad, that in ancient China, a man doesn't know his wife until he marries her? Father: That happens everywhere son, everywhere.
16. A man who once said, "I never knew what happiness was until I got married - and then it was too late!"
17. Love is one long, sweet dream and marriage is the alarm clock.
18. They say that when a man holds a woman's hand before marriage, it is love, after marriage, it's self-defense.
19. When a newly married man looks happy, we know why. But when a man who is married for more than 10 years, we wonder why he is there.
20. There was this lover who said he would go through hell for her. They got married and now he is there.
21. When a man opens the door of his car for his wife, it is either the car is new or the wife is.
22. If you want your wife to listen and pay attention to every word you say, talk in your sleep.
23. Marriage is like a cage: the birds outside are desperate to get in and those inside are desperate to get out.
24. Love is entirely a matter of Chemistry. You can be treated like toxic waste.
25. Wife: I am an excellent housekeeper. Every time I got divorced, I keep the house.

ISRAEL - The Country In My Dreams

Recalling my secondary years, my teacher in World History once asked us to pinpoint the map of Israel on the globe and describe how it looked like. For almost 20 years since then, that subject kept bringing me to the different maps of countries in the Middle East in search for the shape of the so-called Promised Land.

Since the time I learned how to read the Bible, the Holy Book of the Christian faith, Israel is the country mostly described. It is a country where numerous miracles were recorded both in the Old and New Testaments.

In the World map, Israel represents a tiny strip along the borders of Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Egypt. South is the Red Sea. In other World Map editions, the map of Israel cannot be found. Nevertheless, this tiny country that God promised to give to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob powerfully exists!

Ten years ago, I applied for a short training course in Horticulture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Rehovot, Israel. Unfortunately however, my qualification wasn't able to compete with that of my co-applicants. There were three of us from Luzon who applied for the course and one each from the Visayas and Mindanao respectively. As far as I knew, there were only two in the Philippines who got the posts for the training course.

I told myself, however, that it is not yet the time to visit the land where the World's Saviour was born in flesh. I glimpsed instead at how Israel looked inside.

I was oriented to many of Israel's historical sites especially the old cities of Jerusalem and Nazareth. I was also introduced to the sites of the Dead Sea, the Dome of the Rock, the possible sites where Jesus Christ prayed in isolation, the possible peak of Mt. Golgotha where the Saviour was crucified and Bethlehem where He was born.

In agriculture, I learned that Israel is one among the biggest exporters of temperate cutflowers, vegetables and fruits in the world. Many wonder how did this tiny desert country turned its arid lands into a flourishing soil? I learned that Israel is until now keeping abreast with technologies in many fields in science. And most, I learned that the people of the land are called Jews or Hebrews who belong to the ancient Semitic people. Towards the middle of 1900, Adolf Hitler of Germany rose into power and tried to eliminate this race from the face of the earth by subjecting them into forced labor and killing 2 million of them either through shootings or gas chambers. God however didn't allow this race to vanish rather He still preserved it. He has reasons to it.

Records show that Israel had been into several struggles and even wars against her neighbors. Israel is a tiny land but wars nor other struggles cannot strip off the country from where it belongs. America even can never equal the wits and power of this desert land. God has still a plan for His people.

Israel is full of miracles!

How Did Israel Become Israel?

The Book of Genesis of the Holy Bible narrates the creation of the earth and everything in it until the time God created man and woman and named them Adam and Eve. It is in this book that describes how sin crept within the first couple and into the human race. Adam and Eve bore two sons, Cain and Abel. Because of sin, jealousy moved Cain to kill his younger brother Abel. In time Adam and Eve bore another son and named him Seth. More sons and daughters however came to the family after the third son.

Seth became the father of Abraham with his other brothers. Abraham begot only one son from his wife Sarah. He named his son Isaac who became the father of Jacob. Aside from his daughters, Jacob bore 12 sons with Joseph the Dreamer as the 11th. It was from Jacob where a community and 12 tribes arose composing now the nation Israel! His 12 sons actually represent the 12 tribes of the Promised Land.

The book of Genesis further tells how God called Israel to nationhood and salvation with the promise of a posterity, a land and a Saviour.

When Joseph, the 11th Son of Jacob was sold to the Egyptians by his brothers, he grew up until he held a respected position in Egypt at the Pharaoh's house. His family back home never knew about it. It was only during the years of plenty and the years of famine that the true identity of Joseph was later revealed to his brothers who went to Egypt to buy food. Jacob then was assured that his 11th son was still alive. With the approval of the Pharaoh and blessings of God, Jacob with his clan and all his possessions moved to Egypt upon the request of Joseph. All those who went to Egypt with Jacob - those who were his direct descendants not counting his son's wives - numbered 66 persons. With the two sons who had been born to Joseph in Egypt, the members of Jacob's family that went to Egypt were 70 in all." (Genesis 46:26-27).

For 430 years, the said number increased into a nation estimated at two million people. During those years, the large number of Hebrews in Egypt became a threat to the leaders who were to become future Pharaohs. These Hebrews then were subjected into slavery. "So they appointed taskmakers over them to afflict them with hard labor." (Exodus 1:11). These were the years when God seemed to be silent to the Jews/Israelites until a liberator was born in the person of Moses. The accounts of Moses and how God used him to free the Israelites from bondage in Egypt is told in Exodus. Although for reasons that God only knows, Moses was never allowed to enter Canaan where God chose to settle down His people. Moses was only allowed to view the place from afar.

It was through Moses when the first direct miracle accounts were encountered by man. It was through him whom God spoke through a burning bush. It was through him whom God used to free the Israelites from slavery to bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey - a land whom He promised to give to the descendants of Araham, Isaac and Jacob.

For 40 years that Moses led the Israelites out from Egypt, they lived from one place to another in the desert. And it was Joshua's (Moses's brother) task to take them back to Canaan - the Promised Land! While in the Promised Land, three kings arose in turn, Saul, David and Solomon. (Note: read the whole book of Exodus to understand the dramatic freedom of the Israelites out from Egypt).

In his book, Leadership That Builds: Leadership Secrets of Nehemiah, Glenn Johnson narrates that when Kings, Saul, David and Solomon arose in the nation of Israel, "it was tragic that the kingdom was divided north from south because Solomon's many wives led him into idolatry. The ten tribes of the North were called Israel. The two in the South were Judah. The division was God's judgment on His people and more judgment followed. The North was carried away by the Assyrians in 722 B. C. Their national existence was over. The South's final activity occurred 587 BC at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, a Babylonian. This began the 75 year Babylonian captivity. In 2 Chronicles 36, it documants what next takes place. The Baylonians slew the young Jews, abused the virgins and stole the worship articles from the temple.

The survivors were chained together and began the long march to Babylon. But with God failure need not be final. He still had for them a purpose and a plan.

Three groups returned from exile often referred to as the "second exodus". In the Book of Ezra 1-6, it records the return of nearly 50,000 under the command of Zerubabbel, about 538 BC. Ezra spearheaded a second group - around 4, 000 who returned eighty years later - 458 BC (Ezra 7-10). Nehemiah's exile came about 444 BC."

God gave Canaan, that is Israel today, to the Jews or Hebrews!

I am not yet fully adept to the history and people of Israel but for some personal reasons, it is my long desire and dream to visit this country in the fututre, God willing!

(Note: the Babylon before is now the country, Iraq).