Is you stupid?

Forrest Gump said, "Stupid is as stupid does."

I was taught that "stupid" is a strong word. I was also taught Latin. The latter tells me "stupid" come from the Latin, "stupere," which means "be amazed or stunned." That tells me it can be a temporary condition and does not have to be permanent.

Life can stun us, and make us temporarily "stupid." The dictionary defines "stupid" as “having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense” or “dazed and unable to think clearly.”

Having been stunned or dazed, we can make some stupid decisions. In the book "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" the character Jackie Brown said, "This life’s hard, but it’s harder if you’re stupid." (a quote oft misapplied and wrongly credited to John Wayne)

The dictionary might tell us a definition and culture might make the word a norm, but what we ought to be concerned about is what the word of God has to reveal about the subject.

Proverbs 12:1 says, "Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid." (ESV) The Hebrew word translated "stupid" in the ESV is בָּ֫עַר (transliteration: baar). The KJV translates the word as "brutish." "Baar" means "senseless"

Who, then, according to Scripture, is "stupid." The stupid one is one hates to be corrected.

I have been stupid in this way.
I can sometimes be stupid in this way.

I'd like to think when I am being "stupid" that it's temporary. I'd like to think whatever stuns me or dazes me is but a momentary lapse in my willingness to be teachable.

Do we embrace correction? Are we willing to be corrected? Are we consistently teachable? Do we love knowledge? Do we love growing?

Do we so regularly reject correction, even on small things, that we might be accurately labeled "stupid"? Remember, that can be a temporary condition. We can change.