Yes, I do dumb things. Now “dumb” is not a word I let me kids use, just because it’s not the kindest of words. Yet, in reference to myself, I think it’s appropriate. As a kid, I had a friend who said, “Julie, for someone so smart, you can really be dumb sometimes.” Not the kindest of sentiments to be sure, but it definitely has some truth to it. I can be pretty goofy in my actions. Over the years, I’ve gotten some understanding as to why God lets me do dumb things.
What are “dumb things?”
When I say “dumb things,” I’m not referring to the mistakes we make when we genuinely don’t know what we’re doing or we’re inexperienced. Those mistakes are part of the learning process. What I’m referring to are the mistakes we make when we DO know better and still act ignorantly.
Examples of dumb things
Let me give you some examples of what I mean by dumb things. I think I’m an expert at pouring contents from one container to another. So instead of using a helpful tool designed for such a task (called a funnel, I have a few of them), I insist on using my very trained eyes and hands. That is how I end up with, say, powdered cumin all over my counter. I was sure that I could pour it deftly from the bag it came in into the spice jar with the narrow opening.
Another example
Or how about this act of brilliancy? My sister-in-law allowed me to take my oldest daughter and friends up to her family’s lake house which has four levels to it. The instructions for turning on the water had me, from the third floor, use a long pole with a large nail attached to it to push a lever to a 90 degree angle. The lever is located below the bottom level of the house in a brushy, weed populated area.
Since I’m so efficient, I made sure I had those directions in hand when I was turning on the water. By the way, the directions not only had instructions for how to open and close the house, it also had all the codes on it for locked storage areas as well as a number of cell phone numbers.
So like I said, I had that document in hand, literally in my hand, when I was turning on the water. Well wouldn’t you know, as I was pushing down on the lever with the pole, the directions fell out of my hand and floated down the 3+ levels to no man’s land below. As I’m sure you realize, the document had to be fetched since it had sensitive information on it. There was nothing for it, so I clambered down to retrieve it and returned with an abundance of stickers in my mesh shoes.
Why God lets me do dumb things
Now that you have examples of what I mean by dumb things (oh, and I could have given many more), I’ll tell you why I think God lets me do dumb things. As a disclaimer, I don’t presume to know the mind of God. I’m just giving you the reasons I think He allows me to check my brain at the door from time to time.
1. To keep me humble
I don’t know about you all, but I have a pride problem. It is way too easy for me to slip into thinking more highly of myself than I ought. Do you want to know what’s really bad about this? Most of the time I puff myself up based on what people say about my kids. If you’ve been in this parenting gig long enough and your kids turn out to be people you like to have around, you know it’s by God’s grace alone. I’ve made umpteen blunders in my 22 years as a parent. Despite all my best efforts, He produces the results. He gets the glory, not me.
Making goofy mistakes puts me correctly in my place and shows me I am nothing without Him.
2. To remind me that I’m not in control
As with pride, I have a problem thinking I’m terribly self-sufficient. Through much of my parenting years, I had to function as a single parent due to my husband’s job as a fire captain. I know most people think they hardly work, but he worked a lot of extra shifts and, because he was on a FEMA team, he was gone often for training and for FEMA related trips (he was gone for three weeks during Hurricane Katrina relief efforts).
Because I functioned so often as a single parent, I grew accustomed to making decisions about the kids. In my mind, I wore the parental pants in the family. It became mighty easy for me to think I was the one in control.
When I mess up and make a brainless mistake, it makes it glaringly obvious that God is sovereign, and I am not.
3. To make me more compassionate and understanding
I fully admit that I am NOT always compassionate and understanding when my kids do dumb things. Remember that when I say “dumb things” I am using the same definition I used earlier. These are times when I KNOW they know better. For example, we have two sinks in the kitchen. One is smaller than the other and is located on our island. The bigger one is where we usually wash dishes. One day one of my daughters, whose job it was to do the dishes, rinsed a bowl in the smaller sink to prep it for washing. She then proceeded to turn it upside down to walk it over to the bigger sink, thereby leaving a trail of water behind.
You may say, “That’s not a big deal.” You’re right, in and of itself it isn’t a big deal. On a good day, I will remember that and be compassionate and understanding. You have to keep in mind though that I have a lot of people in my house which makes for a lot of opportunities to do numbskull kinds of activities.
However, as I related above, I’m a partaker in such activities. That’s an equalizer. God in His grace often holds up a mirror (metaphorically) so I can see my own folly before I criticize others for theirs.
As I mentioned, I can’t presume to know the mind of God. But I am very grateful when He gives me a glimpse into what He might be thinking.
If you’re interested in reading more of my “reflections and confessions,” you can go here:
The Sovereignty of God Explained by an eight-year-old
The Homeschool Mom’s “to don’t” list
For an entertaining look at mistakes that changed history, check out this video
Seven stupid mistakes that changed the course of history drastically