1. You are meant to make a life with your opposite, having children and caring for them .

2. You are meant to be the physically stronger or weaker one

3. Women think relationships are more important than men do, they have better friendships and go to them for help

4. Women have more nurturing roles in looking after children

5. Males are expected to have better paid jobs so they can support others. If you are a female, having a good job is a benefit rather than an expectation.

6. You see life in more emotional ways if you are female.

7. Men are more competitive; women are more co-operative.

Which of the following about being male and female are true?

What difference does being male or female make to your

life? To explore the meaning of

being made male and female

To draw insights from the story of Adam and Eve

To evaluate how important being male/

female is, for who we are

“male and female He

created them”.

1. Explain 2 things about what being male or female means for us.

2. How could being born male or female “set the pattern of your life”?

**How much of a difference does it make to you personally to be male/ female? Could you easily consider being the opposite?

What do you think being male is about?What do you think being female is about?

1. Underline the phrase in the text that each explanation refers to. Draw lines from that phrase to the explanation.

2. Write out one of the points with its quote. Explain what the quote is saying, in more detail than the point (PEE)

3. Do another PEE, for a second point.

**What is different about how Adam and Eve see their sexuality, from how animals do?

Learning from the story of Adam and Eve.

7 Then the LORD God took some soil from the ground and formed a man[c] out of it; 1 he breathed life-giving breath into his nostrils and the man began to live.  Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to live alone. I will make a suitable companion to help him.” 19 So the LORD took some soil from the ground and formed all the animals and all the birds. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; 2 but for Adam no suitable helper was found. Then the LORD God made the man fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, he took out one of the man's ribs and closed up the flesh. 3 He formed a woman out of the rib and brought her to him.

The man said, 4 “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”  24 That is 5 why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become 6 one flesh. Adam and his wife were both naked, 7 and they felt no shame.

1. Adam’s is made in the image of God, with God’s own spirit

2. None of the animals is Adam’s equal: none can “name”. The man is lonely.

3. Man and woman are specifically made for each other by God.

4. Man wakes up as “male” and recognises with joy a humanity in woman like his own.

5. Man & woman are made to live a life together

6. Man and woman together, are like one new person, because they have given themselves away to the other.

7. Man and woman have total trust in each other, because they have given themselves totally to each other.

Which part of the story says the most about male-female relationships?

A. Animals are not suitable companions for man

B. Woman is taken out of man, as flesh of his flesh

C. They are meant to become one flesh

D. They felt safe with each other & felt no shame

We are made in the image of God. So we can love like God does. 

How does God love?How should Adam and Eve be with each other?

The Church teaches that sexual loving is properly done when you commit to someone in marriage, and leads to parenthood: caring for new life.

Both marriage and parenthood are “written” into the way we are designed as male and female.

But not just by instinct. We make this decision as “images of God” – a free, conscious, reasoned decision to live for the other person in an unselfish loving way, as God loves.

Write a 10 point “love mission statement” as if you were Adam/ Eve writing to Eve/ Adam.