8 They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” 11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14 The LORD God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
Cursed are you more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you will go,
And dust you will eat
All the days of your life;
15 And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
Why are people always passing the blame? From the beginning, the very first sin, Adam, and then Eve, passes the blame, hoping their punishment will be less because it was someone else’s fault. The truth of the matter is that you are responsible for your own choices (and so were they). They had no excuse for what they had done (as God knew full well). Next time you’re tempted to blame someone else for your own bad choices, don’t. Take the high road, and people might even thank you for it.
As an additional insight, my boss (at a former job) once told me that a supervisor is responsible for all the choices their employees make. It goes a long way, and protects those under you when you take responsibility for things that have gone wrong. Even if it isn’t directly your fault, it can help smooth things out when you don’t appear to be passing the buck (even when it should be, by all rights).