Life Matters - November 5, 2025

‘’The problem isn’t (so much) that Johnny can’t read. The problem isn’t even that Johnny can’t think. The problem is that Johnny doesn’t know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling.” – Thomas Sowell. What American Economist Thomas Sowell said in his possible spinoff from Rudolph Flesch’s 1955 critique of the American public school system’s ineffective teaching of phonics in his book, Why Can’t Johnny Read, of course, does not apply to every American school equally as they are about as varied as the people who run them. Which variation is often a mere reflection on how much influence the Holy Bible has on school faculty versus the amount of influence is accepted from the militantly humanistic faculty of the Teachers Unions. 

Today is the culmination of 44 years since dear Sadie and I said our ‘yah’ vows before the deutsche minister who then joined our hands together, gave us the blessing of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, pronounced us husband and wife in the presence of God and these witnesses and then gave this final directive; (in deutsche, of course) ‘’What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”

While we both have regrets, doing life together has been a lot of fun. There has also been a lot of travail. Sadie may speak for herself but for me it was struggling to become the leader and provider that I knew God wanted me to be for my wife and the little ones being added to our household. Four lovely daughters came first. They were, and had, a lot of fun. Our eldest, Linda, was always full of ideas—every day was a new adventure—and in summertime her ideas often involved the woods in front of our house beyond the chicken shed. 

The woods was where they often played and sometimes they played house. Their creativity fascinated me and I became a ‘visitor’ at their ‘house’ when their ‘homemaking’ happened on a Saturday when I was home all day. On one such beautiful Saturday I knocked on their imaginary door and was further fascinated by the hospitality they all freely gave me as they invited me in, politely showed me to the ‘couch’ and proceeded to bring me water, offer me ‘tea’ and something to ‘eat’ and excitedly chattered about their day. 

A ’baby’ cried. It needed fed. Another wasn’t settling down for a nap well and needed to be rocked. ‘Dinner’ was being ‘prepared’ and set on the ‘table’ as I, the visitor, sat musing on the ‘couch’. (a small log) ‘’What,” thought I, “makes this so much fun?” As if for the first time, it was dawning on me that everything about this little girl play has to do with what us ‘big people’ call work. ‘’What is it,” I mused, “that makes ‘work’ so much fun?” 

Two reasons for the fun entered my brain and settled into my heart. Even though these, our lovely daughters, were too young (age 7 down to a year old) to express or even think about it, there was already an innate God-given desire awakening to someday be a homemaker in their own home, and in the meantime they were doing a skit for me—unaware of it, of course—of what they saw and experienced in our home. The ‘walls’ were sticks on the ground, the ‘doors’ were gaps in the sticks, the floor was dirt swept clean of leaves and other woodland debris, the ‘furniture’ was logs or imaginary, but none of that mattered. This was home.  

The other reason work was so much fun, of course, was that the baby never cried unless they so desired—it wasn’t mealtime or bedtime unless they wanted it to be—and their visitor was ever impressed with anything they offered him. But none of that mattered to me. My little girls were learning life by doing life. Their thinking and their feeling was all in. The baby dolls even needed discipline at times. Unknowingly, they were learning that right thinking leads and feelings come along.  

Right thinking, they were to have personally stamped on their hearts and minds in later years, was identified and established by God in His Word and when we have right thoughts about ourselves and our need, right thoughts about God, His Word, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, when those right thoughts settle into us, reside in our hearts, then the way is opened for right feelings about ourselves, others, life, death, God, the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ the son of God, and a myriad of details we encounter every day. Right feelings, because of right thinking, not the other way around. 

Let us not confuse feeling with thinking, but allow our feelings to be judged by what is, in fact, the Truth of the matter. 

Life Matters!