“So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and Female, he created them”

Genesis 1:27

Get close. Focus up. Think garden thoughts.

When God the Father’s dream of a thing called “humanity” was made a reality by his own hand and breath, a man named Adam was the firstborn child of that dream. In this, he exists as the foundational rock our identity as men is built on. Unfortunately for all of us, it didn’t last. Only God himself taking on human form several thousand years after Adam breathed his last would reignite heaven’s plan of perfect humanity. Yet Adam’s life is not without cause for study.

If in fact God is the engineer, artist, author, builder, and creator behind manhood and womanhood as they impact and influence the human experience, it would follow, logically, that His master plan and for gender* is the critical key to getting as close to gender peace, joy, and enlightenment as possible on an Earth broken and poisoned by sin and evil.

Why we do character studies:

Men learn how to interact with their male identity; both as role and character traits primarily through other men just as women learn womanhood through other women. I’d make the case that all men in the Bible can be analyzed for the sake of learning and growing, fathering, and mentoring through a variety of different lenses or formats. For this series of articles, our lens will be one of looking at: (1) Roles (2) Attributes, (3) Divine Character Revealed, and (4) Environment when it comes to these men of the Bible. It also can be described at the acronym RADE.

Study and reflection questions are scattered throughout to invoke deeper contemplations. Feel free to use this material as a Bible study, small group discussion starters, youth group resources, men’s group resources, etc.

Read: Genesis 1:26-31, 2:5-9, 2:15-25, 3:1-24

While the passages in the ESV are required reading in order to understand this character study, I would also recommend reading The Voice translation passages as well for a more robust scripture consumption experience.

Now, let’s dig deep.

personal reflection questions to prime the mind:

What about the account sticks out to you? What do you find yourself going back to when you think about the account?
Where, in connection to your own life, can you connect with Adam, his life, his struggles, and the consequences of sin?
What types of Roles, Attributes, Divine expression, and Environmental influences are present when looking at the Adam account? What did you observe?

pre-thought disciplines

Take 10 deep breaths focusing on how you feel as the new air enters your body and the old air leaves
If you are in a Bible study/Community group setting, open your eyes and make eye contact with everyone in the group
If your group becomes distracted, refocus with the breaths and/or another activity.
Open with a prayer asking the Holy Spirit to offer wisdom, counsel, comfort, and enlightenment as the group reflects on God’s glory, power, and character.

Roles God intended for Adam (“role” here is defined as the responsibilities, behaviors, and expectations connected to someone in a particular situation. In this case: male identity)

Worker and Keeper

(“The Lord took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it” 2:15)

Before the fall/entrance of sin, Adam/men were given the role of working and keeping the domain entrusted to them by God. In Hebrew, “work” can also be translated as “serve” and/or “cultivate.” Working as a role men are to step into seems Biblically synonymous with serving as stewards of God’s creation. Adam’s role was to honor the original design by serving creation as it was; perfect. Only after the fall/entrance of sin did Adam have to work a cursed ground–forging a life from fickle soil; unwilling to yield nourishment freely. Similarly, “keep” has a rich tapestry of root Hebrew definitions as well. Strong lists the following in his definition: “to hedge about (as with thorns), i.e. guard; generally, to protect, attend to.” In the beginning, God set forth a role for Adam: serve and protect as steward over your entrusted domain of creation.

Side Note: as with any given role, the giver, in this case, God, does not ask if Adam wanted to take up this “working” and “keeping,” serving and protecting, he bestowed it on him as a duty and livelihood. Duty is defined by Marium Webster as: “a moral or legal obligation; a responsibility.”

What is your God gifted and given domain? How can we, even in our broken world, embrace our role of serving and protecting what God has given to us?
What are your duties? What are your feelings most often when you carry them out?

Sexual

(“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…” 1:28, “…and they shall become one flesh” 2:24)

Using the word “sex” to describe the inferred practice commanded here by God isn’t accurate anymore. “Sex,” as defined by our current society has been cheapened and degraded; filed down to a blunt, ugly, nub. Recreational, carnal, porn tainted, rolling around is likely what comes to mind for most when we hear the word “sex.” God’s carefully crafted process of procreation is the symphony to “sex’s” pair of cymbals being thrown down a flight of stairs (more on why in later sections).

His first command of “be fruitful” is directed towards both men and women equally–a proclamation of an invitation: ‘Come, create with me. It’s wonderful work.’ Yet in order for procreation to occur, God commands Man to make the first steps away from his family (“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife…” 2:24) towards Woman. Adam steps away from the father God, and toward Eve. Two thousand years later, Jesus would step away from the father toward his bride; the church. Humanity’s sexual role of being fruitful, engaging in procreation, was also not a suggestion, it was a command. A duty. That 6th day of creation, the miracle of life, was to be reenacted over and over as Adam and Eve “filled the earth” with humanity–each also adopting the same call to serve and protect heaven’s perfect earthly masterpiece.

Do you see a problem in the way procreation has been manipulated and redefined? How do you go along with the degradation of procreation and sexuality?
How does our sex life/sexuality in both thought and action, strive to emulate God’s perfect and original vision?

Initiator and Curator

(“And the Lord commanded the man saying…” 2:16, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” 2:24 & 25, “But God called to the man…” 3:9).

God’s vision and expectation of how mankind’s earthly domain (The Garden of Eden) was to be managed physically and morally were spoken directly to Adam before the creation of Eve. It follows therefore Adam was to initiate and curate the conversations and lifestyle disciplines to bring about God’s vision into practiced reality once Eve was created. In God’s perfect world, Adam held the role as first carrier, and then initiator, then curator of God’s vision of morality/order to be carried out in Adam’s domain (Eden).

Adam was not tasked to make up the rules/laws of his domain–only to pass them on and maintain them. It could be argued this also falls under the category of “to work” and “to keep” the garden. This role of moral initiator and curator is affirmed in verse nine of chapter three after Adam and Eve break their trust with God. God turns to “the man” to give an explanation of Adam and Eve’s distrust: “Where are you?…Have you eaten…?” With the responsibility of indicating and curating order, God in turn also holds Adam directly accountable for the failure of this order upheld.

Is this role being part of our identity convicting? What men have shown strong indication and curation in your life? What men have failed? Where have you been the initiator and curator of something? Where have you been passive?

Creator

(“Be fruitful and multiply…” 1:28, “And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name” 2:19, “This, at last, is bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh…” 2:23)

As God, dreams, and visions, dancing across his imagination, spoke the world into existence, so He also called Adam/mankind into creativity and creation. Being an artist and creator himself, God longed for his new offspring to engage in and enjoy the creative process as he did: “and it was good” (1:10,12,18,21,25). Soon after Adam is placed in the garden, God does just that–he brings all animals to Adam for naming. The process takes careful study of each paw, tooth, mane, scale. Adam must have marveled at each unique masterpiece before mouthing their worthy name–only the limits of his imagination marked the barriers of what each would be called.

Procreation is also a process of creation God gifted to his human offspring. From the first loving look that leads to more, to the cry of life as it bursts forth, to nurturing it day after day, God intended Adam and Eve to mirror his own lifestyle of creation and care through their own.

Finally, Adam’s first recorded words are poetry. He bursts forth in exuberant verse, weaving together verbal imagery as both worship to God, and offering to Eve.

How do you create? Where has God brought forth a need and desire for creativity in your life? Where have you ignored or pushed down these divine impulses thinking they were not part of your masculinity?

Valuer of Women

(“…in the image of God he created him; male and female” 1:27, “It is not good that the man should be alone” 2:18, “…there was not found a helper fit for him” 2:20, “This, at last, is bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man” 2:23)

From that first division of God’s image over two beings: male and female, there was a gaping hole in Adam. Surely he felt it. As he interacted with God and saw His perfection, there must have been some sense that Adam, while perfect, was still in process–not complete yet. Male and female perfectly mirrored God’s image back to himself, even while not holding divine status; Adam alone did not. Helping Adam wrap his mind around what the missing part of the process might be, why creation was still leaning forward in anticipation, the Father speaks: “it is not good for man to be alone.” Adam looks to his ever providing Father for the answer to his aloneness. Yet God does not speak Eve into the space right away. God: teacher and lover, almost always opts to use a process to impart/bring about an experience and awareness as opposed to simply “solving the problem.”

First, God brings animal after animal, one after another, to Adam in order for him to see, prove, know that each was lacking. Through this process, engineered for Adam’s male mind, the missing piece of God’s own expression and nature became obvious. No animal held God’s face, beauty, power, voice, compassion, or intellect. No animal could help Adam reflect God’s complete character. Looking around at the animals, innocent unawareness of what was missing is replaced by a passionate longing to find the one who would keep Adam from being alone, embody the perfect helper in carrying out dominion over the earth, and complete the perfect reflection of the Holy Complete God. Only then did God bring Eve forth. Long-awaited one, the perfect expression of God’s beauty and the glory of mankind, she takes her first steps into the garden to hear Adam rejoicing that finally, the search has been concluded with a heavenly crescendo–“Bone of my Bones, Flesh of my Flesh” (2:23) Finally, God’s image and glory is complete in mankind’s reflection.

How has this hit you? What does it make you feel in regards to how we often treat women in our world? Who has modeled what it looks like to devalue women for you? Who has modeled what it looks like to be a valuer of women for you? What does it look like for you to take on the role of a valuer of women right here, right now? Tomorrow? The rest of your life?

Attributes of Adam (“attribute” here is defined as a quality or feature regarded as a characteristic or an inherent part of someone or something)

Created

(“So God created man…” 1:27)

While perhaps obvious, the fact mankind was “created” is critically relevant to how we see ourselves as humans and men. By nature, being created is the claim humanity was not an accident or merely the last line in an evolutionary process of trial and error. The claim here is that we, human beings, men, were created intentionally and on purpose. Later in 2:7, the word “formed” is used to describe the process. Hebrew wording originally used in the text was closely associated with the verbal imagery for shaping pottery by hand.

Created First

Men and women are both equally valued above all creation as image-bearers of the Creator God Himself. To mirror a perfect, holy, righteous, all-powerful being is an honor not even given to the angels (1 Peter 1). And, a message is passed to humanity in this order of gender creation. What is this message? What is the purpose? As explained in the “Role” category, I believe this creation order outlines a role God intended men to take on as initiators and curators of His divine vision for the Garden’s upkeep and protection. Men were to be humble curriers speaking truth and proclaiming original intent while also the point of accountability for the decisions made.

What are the ramifications of being created rather than the product of an evolutionary series of random events? If you were to fully believe this, how do you think it could change your outlook on life?

Image Bearers

(“Let us make man in our image after our likeness” 1:26 & “…in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them 1:27)

Humanity; body, mind, soul, was created as an image/reflection/representation of the one and only living God–enthroned in heaven. The same word has been used as “shadow” in other places around the Bible. Guys and girls, men and women, when we look at ourselves, how we think and feel, we see a shadow of our creator. A string leading back to his original perfect likeness. Our heavenly father is not an unrecognizable force drifting around the universe, He is the perfect original to our likeness. He stands whole and wonderful, magnificent and bright as we lay just behind simple and two dimensional, yet undeniably connected.

As a man, how does knowing you were designed and created by God change the way you see yourself? What questions does it leave you with? What questions would you want to ask God about how you are?

Male

(“Male and female he created them.” 1:27)

Our gender differentiation is an important part of our God’s sculpted identity. Gender, reflected in body, mind, and soul, was not invented haphazardly for the sake of reproduction, it was gifted as a way to more accurately reflect God’s own perfect being onto humanity’s canvas. Women bear a part of that reflected image, and so do men–to ignore this highest of honors is to disregard a foundational aspect of life. To ignore or redefine or disrespect gender is to selfishly toss original perfect intention aside for imperfection. Taking a closer look at the original Hebrew root words can perhaps help flesh out God’s original master plan for gender even more succinctly.

Zakar (male) holds a root Hebrew definition meaning “remember.” Na qab (female) as a Hebrew root can often be used to mean “express.” Men are given the capability to remind women and other men of God’s perfect character in voice and form. Women are given the capability to express God’s perfect character poured into mankind in voice and form. I would propose the difference is subtle and nuanced on purpose. Each man and woman reminds and expresses uniquely. Only by sinfully devaluing or exalting one part of God’s represented image over the other do we find ourselves in gender inequity and chaos.

What has our culture been teaching you about gendered manhood and womanhood? What have you believed? What do you still believe? Why? Do you hold any regrets about being male? Do you ever wish you weren’t male? How do you see us pursuing a more accurate representation of gender in our culture?

Sexual

(“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…” 1:28)

Men and women were created with sexuality and sexual desire as inherent attributes. God’s first command to human beings was “be fruitful”–God actively invited Adam and Eve to engage in the joy of being co-creators with him on the newborn planet earth. As God formed human life–complete with sexuality–he proclaimed: “very good,” and he handed the precious ability to bring forth life to them. Before sin poisoned procreation, heaven set no limit on the sexual expression of “oneness”(2:24) between Adam and Eve. In procreation, men and women become “one body”; bringing God’s image into almost blinding, eye squinting focus as his full character is sung through the notes of total human intimacy. Emotions, anatomy, and souls merge and create new cognitive, spiritual, and in some cases physical, life. Procreation in the Garden was pure worship as the Godhead was glorified for itself and His image was brought together. Under covenantal marriage between a man and a woman, this worship can be experienced as well.

Contemplate and share how this idea of sexuality is different than how most of the world would view sexuality and sex/procreation. When you hear that God designed you as a sexual being, what comes to mind?

How has a poisoned version of sex/procreation and sexuality hurt you? How have these words from God’s original plan hit you in light of how you currently are dealing with and experiencing your sexuality?

Authority

(“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion…” 1:26)

When God gave dominion over the earth to “man” the word refers to mankind, not gendered males. Later God will speak directly to “the man” about how to manage this domain, but not in verse twenty-six.

As offspring of the creator God, mankind inherited dominion and authority over creation when God declared it so. Authority and dominion as inherent attributes are shared by men and women equally according to this passage. The role and vision for cultivating and protecting this domain were given to gendered men. Specific roles under a shared authority are a difficult concept to understand and put into practice–yet it is clear this was God’s original intent. Unfortunately, never again would the perfect balance exist between men and women as it did in the Garden before the fall/entrance of sin.

How can/should these two coexist in harmony(shared authority and specific roles)? Where else is there equal dominion, yet different roles being upheld in our world? Does the idea of having authority over creation make you feel strange? How so? Does the idea of sharing dominion feel strange? Why do you think this has become a strange, almost “wrong” thing to say(having authority)?

Desire to work and keep

(“…and put him in the garden to work and keep it” 2:15)

Yes, “to work and keep” are roles given by God and are fleshed out in the “Roles” category above, yet I wonder if when men were created, God placed an attribute within them to want to work and keep to match the ordained role. If perhaps this is true; our God-ordained roles as men and women are the blossoms of rooted attributes, how then would we re-evaluate and examine our innate attributes (both physical and mental/cognitive)?

In her book Love Thy Body, Nancy Percy talks extensively about how our physical bodies in themselves help us understand what God intended our roles to be, and therefore the ideal and perfect expression of our identity and sense of self as roles and attributes intermingle.

How does this attribute resonate or not resonate with you? Can you relate to wanting to “work” and “keep” something in your own life? How?

Creative

(“The man gave names to all the livestock and the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field” 2:20)

This is another one of those attributes which dance in the space of being both attribute and role. In this moment, God has both called Adam into the role of being creative (coming up with names), while simultaneously expressing his creativity (proclaiming the names). Naming is an art form. It requires using the senses to consume then create a representation of that scene via spoken word/expression. This ability to be creative was born from Adam being given dominion by God in the first place. Without it, Adam would have not been allowed to exercise this creative attribute. Later on when Adam first sees women, his words are recorded as Hebrew poetry–another evidence of God’s perfect design of men to be both creative and creators.

Refer to the questions already discussed in the “Roles” section.

Learner by process

(“…work and keep..” 2:15, “…the Lord God…brought them to the man to see what he would call them…” 2:19)

God, all-knowing creator and mastermind behind human beings and therefore the male gender, built man as a creature who learns and grows via a process of initiation (Process defined here as: a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end. Initiation defined here as: the action of admitting someone into a secret or obscure society or group, typically with a ritual. Oxford Dictionary). Working/serving and keeping/protecting was not a single task to complete and check off a list. It was a lifestyle that encompassed moment by moment thought and action. Working and keeping a domain is a process of learning it and being initiated into one who can care more and more expertly for it. God intended Adam to learn and grow in becoming an expert in working and keeping the Garden of Eden.

The same is true for how God brought Eve into being. Adam’s male design would best respond to a process of learning and growing in appreciation for her. After finding no other “suitable helper,” Adam had been initiated into a mindset of longing for what would come next out of God’s hand. This posture perfectly corresponded to how Eve had been designed–needing to be marveled at simply for who she was–the expression of God’s beauty and glory of mankind.

Think about a process God has brought you through, what was learned? How did you grow? How did the process change you, open your eyes, or create an appreciation? What other kinds of processes have you observed in life that men often need in order to come to some sort of understanding or awareness?

Divine Expression (“divine expression” defined here as: God’s attributes on display through his actions, speech, interactions) NOTE: all of perfect humanity (male and female) are ultimately a reflection of the Divine. Below are added observations in addition to those expressed in pre-fall humanity to help better understand the God we serve.

Creator

(“God created…” 1:27)

Our God is creative. He decided to create a whole world full of unique and beautiful plants and organisms, landscapes, and ecosystems. He endorses creativity, beauty, and expression of self the Genesis creation account/poem. As detailed above in other sections, this creativity has the implication of humanity also being creative/creator beings.

Not afraid to get up close and dirty

(“…the Lord God formed man of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life 2:7)

The Bible’s account of the creation of man is not one accidental in nature, out of anger, or the consequence of some demigod mischief. Here, the one true God’s character trait of willingness to draw close to his creation in intimacy is made known. From the beginning, God has been up-close and personal when it comes to humanity–it’s how he’s always wanted it. So close that life leaves his mouth and enters our nostrils. Close enough to kiss in pure and perfect love.

Generous

(“And let them have dominion…” 1:26)

If God in fact has the unimaginable power to simply speak worlds, creatures, and life into existence, why would he willingly hand partial authority/dominion over to creation? God seems not to have a dictatorship in mind when he sets out the rules and regulations for the earth. Instead, he generously engages man and woman in ruling as he rules to allow them the opportunity to more completely mirror his own likeness. After all, can a ruling being be created with nothing to rule? What does such behavior say about God’s posture towards man and woman? Before man and woman, God held total and complete authority. As he unrolled his plan for humanity, shared rulership was unveiled as well. Again, not earned, gifted as an inheritance by nature of the creation. Adam and Eve needed to do nothing but be God’s beloved creation in order to receive a dominion of their very own.

User of Processes

(It is not good that man should be alone…2:18)

God’s plan had always been to spread his image out over man and women as detailed in Genesis 1 which in Hebrew flowed more like poetry than a clinical scientific report: “…in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.” So why not create them at the same time? Why bring it to Adam’s attention that being alone was “not good”? Why lead Adam through the process of naming all the animals in search of a “helper”? As described in full under the “Roles” category, God was looking to use a process to produce in Adam a certain posture towards Eve before she ever came on the scene. God did not simply say “you shall value and appreciate women.” Instead, he walked with Adam into a sense of incompleteness both holy and perfect because of the God-ordained process it signified. God’s unchanging character is one of using a process to produce.

Approachable

(“And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed” 2:25)

Adam and Eve, before sin’s poisoned gas settled in over the world, lived in complete vulnerability and openness with their Father; God. The two’s nakedness is an expression of this–nothing came between the Father and his beloved offspring. Nothing was hidden, nothing held back. Imagining this situation absent of shame or lewdness is impossible. Our minds are too saturated in nakedness being synonymous with sex, selfishness, shame, exploitation, abuse, rape, and other perversions. Yet before all that, Man and Woman approached God naked, unashamed, unafraid, and fully valued as image bearers–at total peace in his presence.

How has taking a closer look at God’s attributes in the creation account challenged you? How has it encouraged you? Where do you find yourself being drawn in? What attribute captivates you? Where do you find yourself pulling away? What attribute do you push back against in disagreement?

Environmental Influences (“environmental influences” defined here as: ways an environment plays into the decisions made and postures towards others)

Garden

(God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden” 2:15)

Humanity was not originally placed in some sort of shelter. No cave, treehouse, tent, or stick built dwelling hid them. Adam and Eve called the Garden of Eden home, and this state of directly interacting with the rest of creation was perfect. Animals, flowers, trees, water all existed as expressions of God’s grand artistry and humanity took its place living in and among it.

Vegetarianism

(“Behold, I have given you every plant…” 1:29)

Eating meat was a result of the fall. Though not a sin per say, it was not God’s original plan for living creatures to be consumed by one another. Omnivorism exists in the category of “allowable behaviors/practices” under the new reality of sin’s contamination on planet earth. Spoiler, for those who believe a new heaven and new earth is coming, meat-eating will again be relegated as sinful and unacceptable behavior: “The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,” says the LORD ” (Isaiah 65:25).

Animals

(“…let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” 1:26)

When considering “dominion” over the animals was not originally intended as permission to use them for food or clothing, what is left? God intended some kind of close relationship between humanity and the animal kingdom, after all, they were brought to Adam to be assessed for their helpfulness. If God’s animals were thought to be unimaginably unacceptable as companions, Adam would have scoffed. It would have seemed ludicrous for God to first offer them to Adam as potential “helpers.” Adam deemed them lacking, not valueless.

Naked

(“And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” 2:25)

As discussed above in the “Divine Expression” category, the thought of being “naked and unashamed” in the presence of God is tainted by the lives we now live in the environments we now inhabit. I propose we can not imagine what such an experience is actually like because of it, yet this unimaginable state is the environment Adam and Eve walked in. Their pre-sin posture was one of absolute openness and vulnerability with the Father in heaven; living out a heaven meets earth style relationship where all are known and loved completely. Perhaps God himself, in whatever form he took in the Garden, was also naked. Let such words not conjure lewd thoughts, but instead, a mourning for what was lost. Never again on earth would nakedness be seen as it was in the garden. The vessels once allowed to freely proclaim their worship to the heavens: “This is what God has made! This is the instrument of holy communion” fell eerily silent. Instead, now our bodies scream every day of the chasm between heaven and earth. They must remain covered and hidden.

Not Alone

(“It is not good that man should be alone” 2:18)

Aloneness is not good. Declared by the creator, men and women were not designed to live in isolation. Human beings living beside other humans has been ordained by God from the beginning and are a carryover from the pre-fall times. To pursue a life independent and separated from others is to pursue a counter-design and experience the reproductions.

Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

(“but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” 2:17)

Have you considered how drastically different the environment shaping Adam and Eve’s life in the Garden of Eden would have been if the tree had not been there? If there had been no command of “you shall not eat”? Without these environmental parameters, Adam and Eve would have had no awareness of their choice to trust God. He had provided all, and they knew nothing outside of his provision. They did not choose the Garden, life, or God consciously; it just was. Philosophically, it is certain they soon would have wondered about their own decisions and how much freedom they actually had–such is the outcome of the critical thinking capabilities displayed in Adam and Eve’s exchange with the serpent in Chapter 3 of Genesis. With a clear order not to eat of the fruit of this one tree, the implied logic was that they could opt to disobey if their trust in God’s goodness faltered. They had been given the ability to choose. Awareness of their freedom in this choice secured a sense the two were not mere robots or prisoners in God’s brand new creation. Adam and Eve had a say. Yet until the serpent, Adam and Eve rested in confidence that God had not given them any reason to not trust him as good and perfect.

Considering God’s ideal environment, and our identity as humans and men, what could be beneficial to our own current environment? How might you change how you surround yourself?
In your own life, how has your environment shaped the decisions you’ve made?
Do you think it’s true that your environment makes more decisions than you do? Why or why not?

*in this article and all other writings on createdman.com (except for guest writer’s posts), “gender” is used interchangeably with the noun “sex.” Referring to the human being as a whole instead of isolating a cogently determined identity as paramount was a conscious decision. While not trying to hurt or offend anyone overtly, we take the Biblical posture of men and women being created as such; body, mind, soul, and indivisible from cross-sphere influences seriously. We value the whole human. Please engage us further if you are hurt by such wording, we would like to hear your story.

written by Austin Clark, createdmanbrand^TMteam member, and contributor