Rule number 5 is as simple as they come. You know that time it snowed and you thought it would be fun to try to drift rally-style on the ice? Yeah, that was dumb. You shouldn’t have done it. Oh, and remember when you thought it was cool to touch your tongue to a 9-volt, so you decided to try an exposed extension cord? Again, dumb.

This doesn’t even require you to do smart things. All it requires is that you not try to catch a tiger by his toe. If only it were so simple.

I, like many others (if we’ll admit it) find myself doing dumb stuff all the time. Once recently I referred to a girl I work with as “gigantic”. I meant to acknowledge her height (she’s 6-foot) in a playful manner. She didn’t see it that way.

There are simple reasons for not doing dumb stuff.

  • You’ll seem smarter.
  • You’ll feel smarter.
  • You’ll have less to apologize for.
  • You’ll spend less on band-aids and Neosporin.
  • The card in your wife’s bouquet can start with, “I love you,” instead of, “I didn’t mean to…”
  • And, of course, many more…

If those aren’t enough, try this: “The wealth of the wise is their crown, but the folly of fools yields folly.” ((Proverbs 14:24, NIV)) There you have it, doing dumb stuff leads to more dumb stuff, which leads away from the aforementioned benefits of not doing dumb stuff. Just say, “No!” to stupidity.