Beginning of the End - Ellen G. White

The Lord then passed sentence upon the serpent: "Because you
have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than
every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat
dust all the days of your life." From the most beautiful of the
creatures of the field it was to become the most groveling and
detested of all, feared and hated by both man and beast. The words
next addressed to the serpent applied to Satan himself, pointing to
his ultimate defeat and destruction: "I will put enmity between you
and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall
bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel."
Eve was told of the sorrow and pain that she must have. "Your
desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." God
had made her the equal of Adam, but sin brought friction, and now
their union could be maintained and harmony preserved only by
submission on the part of one or the other. Eve had been the first in
transgression. By her urging Adam sinned, and she was now placed
in subjection to her husband. Man's abuse of the supremacy thus
given him has too often rendered the lot of woman bitter and her life
a burden.
Eve had been happy by her husband's side, but she was
flattered with the hope of entering a higher sphere than God had
assigned her. In attempting to rise above her original position, she
fell far below it. In their efforts to reach positions for which God has
not fitted them, many today leave vacant the place where they might
be a blessing.
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