A teen-aged girl grieves silently for the child she will never nurture to maturity. There is an aching void within her body and spirit. Her violated womb may recover; but her heart, broken by sin, may never.

An unsuspecting wife reacts in disbelief to the bombshell just dropped on her. Her husband of thirty-five years is leaving her for a younger woman. How will she support herself? To whom can she turn?

A grandmother is putting off plans for her own retirement to support three young grandchildren whose mother is a heroin addict and an unfit parent.

What do these scenarios have in common? They reflect a gross lack of responsibility on someone’s part, which has resulted in suffering and inconvenience for other people. Irresponsibility, it seems, runs rampant in our society.

It started in the Garden

According to Moses’ account in the book of Genesis, the world was originally a beautiful and perfect creation into which God placed the Man ("Adam," meaning "red earth"). His garden home, called Eden (2:8) was a paradise in which all the wonderfully unique animals God designed mingled with the man, who gave each one a name. As Adam noted that each one had its own mate, however, he was filled with a sense of loneliness. God then made him a special companion from one of his ribs while he slept – one who was like the man, but delightfully different.

The sight of this wonderful creature led Adam to exclaim with pleasure, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man" (2:23). The woman was not an afterthought on God’s part. Her position in the first home was one of companionship (Gen. 2:24), but also of subjection, seeing that she was created for him and after him (1 Tim. 2:12-13).

That first home was the picture of perfection. Six times the record states that God’s handiwork in nature was good, but with the establishment of the home, God affirmed that all was very good(1:31). God made the first couple significantly different from the animals when He created them in His own image and gave them the intelligence to make choices (1:27). With that privilege also came responsibility, and God tested whether they would act responsibly by giving them one restriction. They were allowed full reign in Eden; only the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that grew in the center of the garden, was off limits.

In time, the adversary of man, acting in the form of a serpent, presented the woman with a challenge. Genesis 3:1-6 reveals how he planted a seed of doubt in her mind that God was telling the truth. For God had warned Man about the special fruit, forbidding them even to touch it, and telling Adam in no uncertain terms that disobedience would result in an immediate sentence of death. Adam understood this and communicated God’s instructions clearly to his wife (3:3). Yet Satan challenged the veracity of these assertions, and as Eve looked longingly at the fruit – so desirable for food and delightful to look at, she became convinced that she could disobey God without these awful consequences coming to pass. After all, the serpent told her, this fruit would make her as wise as God Himself! Surely such wonderful possibilities outweighed the risks!

We understand her struggle all too well, for which of us has not fallen victim to his same deceptive devices (1 Jn. 2:16)? Although Adam was not personally deceived, he made a decision to join the wife he cherished in disobeying God (I Tim. 2:14).

Decisions, decisions

Aristotle said that we become what we are as persons by the decisions that we make. Adam and Eve each made a fateful decision that day, because both of them listened to the wrong advice. It has been said that Eve was listening to Satan rather than to her husband, who was her spiritual head. Adam, also, was listening to his wife instead of his spiritual head, who was God. As a result, they sinned, and when they did they became fearful and ashamed of themselves. "One little sin" had deprived them of both the dignity and security God intended for them. It also drove them into hiding (3:10).

It is not hard to imagine the problems that must have developed almost immediately in their home. Likely there were harsh words of discord, for neither one of them wanted to take full responsibility for his or her actions.

Saved through childbearing

Immediately, the consequences of sin began to manifest themselves. God banished the couple from their beautiful garden home; now Adam had to toil by the sweat of his brow to make the soil produce. He must have labored many days until dark, drenched in sweat, hands blistered and back aching. Eve also experienced new pains and the peculiarities of womanhood. Perhaps she watched in dismay as her once beautiful body gradually grew old and wrinkled. The process of aging was a daily progression towards death, just as God foretold. Contrary to the tempter’s claims, it was clear to Adam and Eve that God does keep His word. But because they had been warned, there was no one to blame but themselves.

Their wounded spirits might have languished beyond recovery had not God made a magnificent promise. He foretold that in time the woman’s seed would utterly destroy this Devil, and He placed a curse upon the serpent, through which Satan had worked. All women thereafter would suffer some of the consequences of Eve’s actions, yet God placed upon her gender a most sacred responsibility and privilege which, in essence, saved womankind from total humiliation. It would be through woman that the Divine ("God with us" - Mt. 1:23) would take on human flesh and enter the world (Gal. 4:4).

Adam renamed his wife Eve, meaning "life," because she was to become the mother of all humanity. When Eve conceived and bore a son, she exclaimed, "I have gotten a man-child with the help of the Lord" (4:1). Later she gave birth to another son, Abel. It is unlikely that Mother Eve realized the sorrow that lay in store for her family in the days and years to come. How could she have known that one of her sons would become the murderer of his own brother, and that shewould forever bear a part of the responsibility?

Out of control

When these two boys grew to manhood, each assumed an occupation – Abel as a keeper of sheep, and Cain as a farmer. In time, they both came before God with offerings. Cain brought a gift of produce, and Abel sacrificed a lamb from his flock. Significantly, Abel’s gift was from the "firstlings" of his flock, that is, the very best that he had. The scripture says that "the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard" (Gen. 4:4-5). This would suggest that God found fault with Cain’s actions as well as his attitude. Abel’s sacrifice was offered by faith (Heb. 11:4), which indicates that he was following God’s directive (Rom. 10:17). Like his mother before him, Cain evidently thought he could disobey without consequences.

Although God warned Cain that he was on the verge of being overcome by Satan (Genesis 4:7), he was consumed with emotions of anger, envy, resentment, and even hatred for his brother (1 Jn. 3:12-13). He ignored God and acted on impulse, luring his brother into the field and slaying him. Unlike his parents, Cain was insolent toward God and denied his sin (Gen. 4:9). As a result, God banished him into exile from the presence of his people. Poor Eve – her suffering seems unending. Too late she learned, as someone has said, that "freedom is a package deal." With it comes both responsibilities and consequences."

We are accountable

God’s promise to Eve culminated in the coming of the Savior into the world (Mt. 1:21). His victory over Satan embodied God’s grace toward mankind, that is available to all people (Tit. 2:11). Those who neglect His magnificent grace can no more escape the awful consequences of disobedience than could Adam and Eve (Heb. 2:3). Because all people sin (Rom. 3:23), God expects all people to repent of their wrongdoing (Acts 17:30).

Some in Paul’s day saw grace as a license to continue sinning, and the apostle had to correct that erroneous idea. "God forbid" such a thought, he wrote (Rom. 6:1-2). Some will choose to act as though sin does not exist, because, to them, "God does not exist." They are without excuse, for He is clearly visible within His Creation (Rom. 1:18-20). There is no escaping the fact that God made us in His image, giving us the freedom to make choices and expecting us to do so responsibly. That old excuse, "the devil made me do it," won’t work for us any more than it did for Eve.

We Can Be Forgiven

Being accountable for our sins does not mean that we must bear them forever. We can be forgiven! John writes, "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 Jn. 1:8-9). What a wonderful thought! Confession of wrongdoing not only brings forgiveness, it brings emotional and even physical relief. Read Psalm 32 to see how confessing his sin to God changed David’s life for the better.

Failure to acknowledge our trespasses results in guilt that eats away at the heart. David wrote, "When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away (v. 3). Dr. Karl Menninger, in his classic book Whatever Became of Sin?, suggests that although the word "sin" has almost disappeared from our vocabulary, a sense of guilt remains that has afflicted the world with the depression, gloom, discouragement, and apprehensiveness that is so prevalent."

Our society is plagued with an "anything goes" mentality. Behaviors once considered irresponsible and wrong are not only excused; they are viewed as normal by those who take pride in their freedom to "do their own thing." Many innocent people suffer as a direct result of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, addictions, unwanted pregnancies, abandonment, violence, and disrespect for human life.

William Bennett, in The Book of Virtues, has written, "Responsible persons are mature people who have taken charge of themselves and their conduct, who own their actions and own up to them – who answer for them." (The Book of Virtues, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993, p. 186).

Responsibility, as we have seen, does not occur naturally. It must be taught. Who better to do this than the mothers and mother-figures of this world? In our next segment, we will explore the marvelous role of teaching and nurturing that God has bestowed upon women.