Authentic Manhood - Accept Responsibility

God walked up to Adam and asked him why He was hiding.  Adam told him that he was hiding because he was ashamed and naked.  God asked him why he was ashamed asked him if he had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Adam, in his amazing brilliance, tells God this;

"The woman that you gave me told me to do eat the fruit."

What a wuss.  Adam shirks responsibility and blames his wife.  If you really read into it Adam blames his wife and blames God, "you gave her to me."  No one made Adam eat that fruit.  Adam ate that fruit by his own account.  He is responsible for his actions.

In Hebrew class yesterday we took a look at Genesis 3:4.  "The serpent said to the woman, you will not die."  What's interesting about this is that the "you" that is used her is used in the masculine plural sense.  That means that the serpent wasn't just responding to Eve, he was responding to Eve AND Adam.  While this whole exchange was going on - Adam was standing quietly by watching his wife get deceived.  Adam wussed out.  He didn't speak up.  He just let is happen.  Adam was passive and did not accept his responsibility.

How has this affected me?  Well I am still terrible in this area.  I have come a long way in conquering passivity, but I have a long way to go in accepting responsibility.  Here is where I am growing:

Fatherhood - Instead of getting mad that my wife won't take care of the kids and keep them quiet, I try to get my butt off the couch, turn of the TV, and be a father.  I try to teach my kids life lessons.  I try (TRY) to keep my patience and do things slower so that I can explain them to my kids.

Husband(hood) - If there is work to do - I try to take care of it.  Are there dishes in the sink?  I should clean them.  Is there close that need to be put away?  I should do that.  Does a diaper need to be changed?  I should take care of it at first smell.  (Mindy reads this - so let me be honest and say that I am TRYING in all these areas!)

Friendship - I am terrible at this.  I have started to carve out time each week to talk to my friends.  I get so caught up in work, school, and family that I often leave out people who are very important to me.  Over the past year I have realized that I am not a very good friend.  I need to accept the responsibility of working on my friendships and caring about my friends as much as they care about me.

Are you accepting responsibility?

Comments

Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
January 30, 2010 at 8:15 PM
Smartest cousin said…
Good read. Now the next question is, why did the serpent go after Eve instead of Adam? Something for a later post, perhaps!
February 11, 2010 at 1:53 PM
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