Cain and Abel

The story begins with the birth of two brothers by the name of Cain and Abel. These brothers were the children of Adam and Eve, Cain being the firstborn and Abel being born second. They each had their own specialty, Cain was a farmer and Abel was a shepherd. Out of respect, both of the brothers gave an offering to God. Cain gave a share of his crops and Abel gave some of his herd. Abel was graciously thanked by God, but Cain was not. Jealousy grew deep within Cain. Jealousy that eventually sprouted into full on hate for his brother. Cain then committed the first murder when he killed his brother out of jealousy.

My brother and sister and I generally get along pretty well. Though, the major detail that keeps me from fighting with them is that I am eight years older than my brother and nine years older than my sister. This large gap in age keeps any jealousy or competitiveness out of the picture as it is accepted by them that I am allowed to do things that they are not because I am older than them. They do however fight amongst one another. I think this has a lot to do with fact that they are very close in age and also go to the same school.

My brother the dinosaur

Okay so with Cain and Abel what basically happened was that their parents did it and Cain was born first and then later Abel. This turned out to be somewhat problematic evidently. Following those two events, Abel tended to flocks of sheep and Cain was more of a soil and crop kinda dude. One day God was like, "Hey, boys, how 'bout an offering?"
And the brothers were like "Sure, bro, no problem."
So Cain brought some fruit and Abel brought some sheep fat and gave their offerings to God. For whatever reason, God looked at Abel and was like, "Yeah nice job, dude."
Then he looked at Cain and was all, "Meh."
 <---- the emotions of Cain after God totally dissed his offering.
God came back to Cain and was like, "You mad, bro?"
And Cain was like, "Yeah, for sure."
To which God responded with, "Should've done right by me, my man."
So Cain then is just like, "Uhm really???"
So finally Cain is just done with life for the day and was talking to Abel and suddenly he's all, "Hey, Abel, let's go out in that field man."
And Abel is all, "Sure thing, bro."
So they do and Cain gets his sin on by murdering his brother because he was so jelli.
After that, God comes back to Cain and is like, "Uhm where's your brother....?"
And Cain says, "I don't know. Do I look like his mama?"
Obviously God didn't appreciate Cain's sassiness because then after that he cursed him and Cain could never grow crops again.

My brother and I have had sibling rivalry since the moment we knew he existed. In fact, it just so happened that the day he was born, I was so ill, I had to go to the hospital with my mother while she was in labor because my parents were that concerned and wanted me checked out.
I have always called that a sign from the universe.
Since that day, my brother and I have battled a fifteen year long war. It began with hair pulling, and escalated from that. He is known for having bit me, and I am known for having punched him. It wouldn't even have to have been provoked.
For example, one day while I was swinging, Jacob decided my turn was up and yanked me off the swing and bit me on my back. I returned with a fist to his lip.
Needless to say, we were spanked a lot.
To this day, Jacob and I still argue and fight. I doubt it'll change any time soon.

This is Jacob and I when we were younger jumping off the top of my bed, the same bed I have to this day. If you look to the left, you'll see on the wall the remains of what Jacob had drawn on my wall earlier that day.
 I don't think I would really be a big sister if I didn't post this.
The unfortunate state of today's Jacob.
My brother the dinosaur.

Cain & Abel

In Genesis 4, it says that Adam and Eve had two sons named Cain and Abel. Cain was a farmer and Abel was a shepherd, and one day they each brought offerings to the Lord. Abel brought some choice parts from the firstborn animals from his flock, and this pleased God (so I guess the Lord wasn't a vegetarian). Cain brought some crops from his field, but the Lord did not approve, for whatever reason. So Cain got mad and, I'm sure embarrassed, because nobody likes getting told their work is sub-par.

But God told Cain that if you do your best, everything's gonna be alright, but if you don't try, sin is gonna take you away in one big sweep. So, (naturally?) Cain ignored the Lord, and went and killed his brother Abel out of jealousy. Then God cursed Abel and his fields and sent him to the Land of Wondering for the rest of his days.

I have conflict with my 15 year old all the time, but if she had wanted to murder me every time I've been better than her at something, well I would've been dead a long time ago. Actually the reason my we fight the most is because she's super sensitive (she's just at that stage, my mother says) and I like to joke a lot. So when she messes up or something, I poke fun at her and she doesn't take it well and it escalates quickly. But never to murder. That's usually where my parents step in. C'mon Adam and Eve where were you guys? That's the second time you've let us down.

cain and abel

In Genesis 4, Adam and Eve have two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain worked in the fields and Abel worked with the livestock and when it was time to give offerings up to the Lord Cain brought some of the fruits from the soil but Abel brought portions of the fattened calf. God looked favorably on Abel and his offering but not as much on Cain and his offering. Cain was very jealous of his brother and because of this he became very angry. God asked Cain why he was angry and told him that as long as what he did was right he would not be punished. After hearing this Cain took his brother out into the field and killed him. When God found out about what Cain had done he punished him. Cain's punishment was that no matter how hard he worked in the fields the soil would never produce any fruit.

This passage of the Bible illustrates that someone and their work will always be better than you and yours but you should not lose heart! Even if you are not the best at everything you do, even if you do not have the best of everything, you should still do everything to the best of your ability and should still be satisfied of everything you have. As long as you are doing your best you are not doing anything wrong and therefore will not be punished for it. 

I have two younger half sisters, one is five years younger than me, and the other nine years younger than me. Because of the large age difference our conflicts are minimal. I never had to worry about sharing my toys as a child, and by the time either of them were born I was old enough to understand that babies needed more attention. The most conflict I have with either of my younger sisters is with my eight year old sister, Elizabeth. Elizabeth, to say it nicely, is a brat. My father and her mother do not discipline her and it astounds me how misbehaved she is. My mom raised both me and my other sister to be very well mannered especially to adults, something Elizabeth sorely lacks. She has no manners what so ever. Please and thank you do not even exist in her vocabulary and she is so rude. I have no patience for this behavior so I call her out on it and then she screams at me and cries in her room for an hour but that is really the only conflict I have with either of my siblings.

Siblings...

Cain and Abel is the story of two brothers. They both have their own specific jobs: Cain was a farmer and Abel was a shepherd. One day, Cain presented an offering of his crops to God. Abel also presented an offering, his first born sheep and fattest calves. God was happy with Abel's offering but not so much with Cain's. Obviously, Cain was mad 'cause his little brother out did him. And God asked him why he was so mad and said he needed to control that along with his desire to be best. Then Cain was like, hey Abel lets go out to the field. So they went out and Cain murdered him.

I have a little sister and I'll admit, things aren't always peachy between us. We fight a lot, mostly about silly stuff, and I can be a bit jealous at times, but I still love her. But there's the story my mom's been telling recently that kinda encompasses our sibling rivalry. While I was at GSP, Rachael was super bored and couldn't wait for me to come back. My mom couldn't figure out why. 'You mean, you'd rather be fighting and bickering your sister all day than being with us?' 'Uh yeah!' My mom being an only child really can't understand. But while we may fight, and I may be jealous that she better at everything, and there are days where I could just rip her to shreds... I still love her and would never take her out into a field and kill her. (Which is probably reassuring for her at least...)

Can We Make "Knew" a New Euphemism Please?

So Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain farmed the land, and his brother Abel kept sheep. And Cain decided he would honor God with some of his harvest, and likewise Abel honored God with a sacrifice of the firstborn sheep of his flock. And God, being that as he is, respected Abel's offering but not Cain's. Cain grew mad at his brother for gaining the favor of God, and jumped to the completely rational conclusion that he should kill him for his transgressions (which is to say that it was not rational at all, don't think I'm endorsing murder because sarcasm doesn't translate to writing well). So, being all knowing as he was, God knew that Cain had murdered Abel, and therefore cursed him never to have a good harvest, but also cursed anyone who killed Cain sevenfold. The rest of the chapter then details how first Cain, then all of Cain's sons, "knew" their wives and continued the bloodline (and you have to wonder where all their wives are coming from, aside from the obvious).

Being the older sister, I can safely say that I doubt I'd ever murder my sister because she held the favor of God and not I. There are multiple reasons that that wouldn't happen, and I don't feel the need to detail them. However, I think the best way to describe my relationship with my sister is this: sometimes I'll sit in her room for 3 hours and talk to her about whatever, and sometimes we set each other off from the slightest word. Lately it's been more of the former than the latter, though that's hardly unheard of still. Generally I'd say that we get along rather well -- and maybe that's because we haven't gone to the same school since I was in 4th grade. That said, I'm sure there has been rivalries and such. I probably wouldn't be leaping too far ahead of myself to say that I don't really care enough to have much of a rivalry with her, though she does have her moments of rivalry with me.

The best example of a sort of rivalry would be last night, when I was talking about my first AP Human Geography test score -- which, full disclosure, was an 82 with just the multiple choice and no essays or my extra credit -- and she felt it absolutely necessary to jump in and say that she got a 100 on her first HuGe test. Not too spectacular, but we usually get over arguments pretty quickly. My parents have said it's because I almost have no pulse at all and kinda let her do whatever, but most of the time I think she'd prefer to just not argue.

Plus, we're able to talk about stuff like Star Trek and Sherlock together, so why ever would we spent time fighting when we can instead talk about how absolutely ~dreamy~ Chris Pine is -- a comment which is only half joking.

Genesis 4

In this story Adam and Eve had two children, Cain and Abel. Cain grew crops and Abel herded sheep. One day God called upon them to make a sacrifice as an offering. Cain presented to the lord a share of his crops, and Abel presented a lamb. God was happier with Abel's gift than he was with Cain's, so Cain got jealous of Abel. Cain murdered his brother and then God cursed him.

I have a little brother named Nathan and I give him shit all the time. He is a year younger than me, and basically he is really quiet and I just want to have a sibling rivalry with him, but he would rather lock himself in his room. I still manage to break in and raise hell though, and then get mad at him when he finally punches me in the face in response to me tackling him. We help each other out when we need it, and we entertain each other at family events. I fight with my brother probably once every other week at this point. Sometimes I go a whole week without seeing him or knowing where he is. His favorite color is green. Nathan.

This is Nathan several years ago. He doesn't have that gap anymore. His hair is blonde in the summer. He's the Abel to my Cain.