Up a Stump

Up a Stump

Up a Stump--stump I always thought up a stump meant the same as stumped. My friend Patty Cooper Emerson explained a difference in the two.

Stumped means confused or puzzled.

We cut a few trees in our back year. I was stumped about what to do with the stumps. Should I:

  • Dig them up
  • Burn them
  • Leave them alone

Up a Stump--honeysuckle-covered stumpWith one stump, I let nature take control. Honeysuckle grew near it. I allowed the honeysuckle to keep growing. Now, it covers the stump and blooms all summer. Problem solved.

No longer stumped, I have a pretty stump.

Up a stump means a situation too big to manage.

I cannot solve the problem. I:

  • Have no choice
  • Must live with it

Patty gave the example of a young man who arrives 30 minutes late to work every day. If he is my sister’s son, I might feel up a stump – like I can do nothing.

What makes me feel up a stump may not make you feel that way.  

  • You may be comfortable firing your sister’s son.
  • I may feel comfortable with a problem you cannot manage.

Nothing leaves God up a stump. Rather than tying myself in knots or becoming a worry wart, I can take all my problems to God. So can you.

“A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump; a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree” (Proverbs 11:28 MSG).

If you use up a stump and stumped, do you mean the same? Please comment below.

Do you have an expression you want explained or a thought about this one? If so, please comment below.

Subscribe to receive my weekly posts by email and receive a free copy of “Words of Hope for Days that Hurt.”

If you enjoyed this post, please share it with your friends.

12 thoughts on “Up a Stump

  1. I’d never even heard of “up a stump,” Diana. I’ve always said up a tree. I looked that saying up, and it means “in a difficult situation without escape, cornered.” So I guess it’s similar to up a stump.

  2. Great article, Diana! Your perfect segue from an idiom to a relevant Biblical statement is inspiring. Also, thanks for the mention. 😊

  3. We had a stump in our backyard. A pileated woodpecker took it clear down to the roots. Now, we have a sunken in the place where the stump was. I enjoyed the seamless way you went into the Biblical aspect of turning things over to God.

  4. Interesting, Cecelia. I haven’t seen any woodpeckers recently. Maybe you can send your friend our way for another stump needing work. I have plenty of dirt for a sunken place. Thank you for the story and your encouraging words.

  5. Bumfuzzled brought me to up a stump. I know bumfuzzled, but I’d never heard up a stump. I thought there would be a mention of “up a creek (without a paddle!)”.
    We left the tree stumps high in our yard and enjoy watching the birds feast on their “habitat stump”.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.