Cain and Abel

The fourth chapter of Genesis begins where the third chapter ended, with Adam and Eve having left the Garden of Eden, never to return. After some time, Eve gives birth to Cain and, then again, to Abel. Cain and Abel have differing responsibilities in the New World: Cain works as a "tiller of the ground" while his brother, Abel, worlds as a "keeper of sheep." At some point in time (the Bible does not clearly state when), both Cain and Able decide to present God with sacrificial offerings. As a tiller of the ground, Cain offers God some fruit that he grew from the land. On the contrary, Abel sacrifices to God some of the lambs from his flock, and it is apparent that God prefers Abel's offering over Cain's. Disheartened and envious, Cain murders Abel shortly thereafter in an open field. God suspects that Cain has committed some terrible act and asks hime as to the whereabouts of his brother. Cain confesses to God that he killed his brother, to which God responds by cursing Cain: "When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength;a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth." Cain leaves his mother and father and ventures into the land of Nod, "on the east of Eden," where he settles and makes permanent residence. In time, Cain has a son, Enoch, and builds a city, which he names after his son. (Although the Bible does not mention who gave birth to Cain's son, there is only one option as to who this might have been, considering there were only three people living on Earth at this time.) Enoch eventually marries and has children, who eventually marry and have children, and so forth the cycle continues. Though countless of Cain's descendants eventually populate the Earth, they are all taught to praise God.

Although I have had conflicts with my sister in the past, such altercations have been minor and have never resulted in one of us killing the other. Nevertheless, like Cain, there have been moments when I felt touches of jealousy in my sister's relationship to my parents and envy of her lot in life--her success, her achievements, her aspirations, etc. When I was younger, for instance, I believed that my mom and dad love my sister more than they loved me, as they always seemed to side with her on arguments between the two of us. They actually did usual support my sister's position in arguments, but for good reason; I was not the most agreeable of children. Naturally, I viewed this as special treatment. Of course, since I was the baby of the family (my sister is six years older than me), the opposite was, in fact, true: My parents doted on me far more than they did on my sister, but it did not feel like that at the time. This phase eventually subsided, only to be replaced by envy for my sister's accomplishments as i entered my teenage years. My sister, like everyone else in my family, is a high achiever, and she has thus attained various academic and athletic awards over the years. She is, for instance, valedictorian of her high school class of 2008, she is a National Merit Scholar, and she was captain of her varsity soccer team for two years. She is now currently in medical school at the University of Virginia, a path that I hope to follow within the next four years. However, I believe that this phase in my life is also now coming to an end. In the past year, I have started to focus less on my sister's accomplishments and more on my own. After considering all of my accomplishments in the past few years, I have realized that I have also been, for the most part, successful in my endeavors. My relationship to my sister has, correspondingly, improved within the past few years as well. Now that we understand each other's similarities and differences, we have finally been able to coexist without any constant bickering.