Do you know the difference between being ignorant and being just plain stupid?  I don’t make a practice of calling people either one, although I know those who, by definition, are both.  According to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary one who considered ignorant is, ‘lacking knowledge or comprehension of a specified thing.   It also implies a lack of understanding or awareness of a certain topic or idea”.

I am ignorant of modern mathematics and nuclear physics.  That doesn’t mean I am a stupid person, I just have do knowledge or expertise in these areas of study.  I also am very electronically challenged.  I don’t like my computer and don’t even know the difference between an ipad and a notebook.  I don’t understand gigabytes and CD Roms.  But, I m not a stupid individual.

Now, being stupid is a whole other matter.  According to the same dictionary, stupid means,” slow of mind, given to unintelligent decisions, acting in a careless manner, unreasonable thinking, and making poor choices”.  I have also heard it said that a stupid person is one who continues to do the same thing over and over, but expects a different result.  To change the results you are having, you must change the way you are doing things.

If I keep eating bags of candy, I will get fat.  If I run across the ice, I probably will fall and break something.  If I don’t pay my electric bill, they will turn off my power.  These are all stupid choices; but to change those results I have to change my actions.  I should stop eating too much candy, walk carefully across the ice, and pay the electric bill.

Some people have medical or emotional reasons for making bad choices, others are just stupid.  God gives us each a mind to think clearly. He gives us knowledge of Himself and His world.  He shows us the right things to do.  His word in an infallible guide to making good choices.  But, He will not violate our personal will, so if we make a bad choice, we must take responsibility for our own actions.

We are making choices all day, every day.  When we wake up in the morning we choose to get out of bed.  Some choose to sleep all day.  We can choose to go to work or take the day off with some flimsy excuse.  We choose what we eat, what we speak, who we hang around with, whether we are financially responsible and so much more.

If we are ignorant of a certain subject, we can choose to learn about it or live without it.  When we are making stupid choices, we just need to re-think our behavior and make a change.