People Don't Mean to Be Stupid

I was at my girls (young women's) Bible Study tonight and we started talking about stupid things that people say, including us. I was saying that I wanted to write a skit about how inappropriately people use spiritual cliche's. Like maybe having a woman running down the street screaming that her house was on fire, and trying to get people to help her. But all the people she stopped would say things like, "It's okay honey, because the Lord won't give you more than you can handle," or "Well don't you worry about that fire because God won't close a door without opening a window."

In and of themselves, these are true statements, but sometimes, we as believers, as Christ followers, throw out (or throw up) these truths as life lines, instead of actually loving like Christ loved and getting our hands and feet dirty and helping. Anyway different blog.

So, our conversation about cliche's led us to talking about other things people say and that led to a conversation of mixed metaphors. I am horrible about mixing my metaphors (read Accutely Aware in my earlier blogs). One girl said that she doesn't mix her metaphors, she just uses them at the wrong time. Her example was saying, "Well, I gotta go see a man about a horse." She thought it meant that she had somewhere to go, but apparently the people she said it to thought it meant that she needed to pee. What does this saying mean? Comment if you know, because I thought it meant you had somewhere to go also.

Finally our conversation ended in how we all (yes, even those of us in the group) say well meaning but stupid things to people who are in difficult places in life. Some examples, writing in a sympathy card for a woman who had just lost her teenage son, "Well, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Or saying to a young woman who just lost a baby, "Well, at least you're young, you can still have more kids."

All that to say, I'm curious. So, what is the dumbest thing that anyone has ever said to you, or you have said to someone else?