October 23, 2026
Business by the Book
Proverbs 17:28 Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.
No doubt, you’ve heard it, “It is better to be quiet and be thought a fool than to speak up and remove all doubt.” I have violated this piece of advice so often that I could probably give an example every day for a month. Three readily come to mind.
I was young and my family was fishing. We were crappie fishing. We were tied up under a bridge, fishing, all night. My older sister said something that I didn’t think was too bright. So I said, “Boy are you dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, you are (I spelled it out) d-u-m, you are dumb.” My mom had to tell me why everyone was laughing at me. What is worse, saying something dumb, or being so dumb that you don’t know how to spell dumb.
I was giving a speech in 9th grade. It was to be a demonstration speech, so I was going to demonstrate how to change the oil in a car. The night before I was thinking about the ’65 Chevrolet my dad was restoring for me. It dawned on me that everyone mispronounced the word “Chevrolet”. So, the next day, during my speech, throughout the entire speech I pronounced it properly. I called the car a Chev-ro-let, the last syllable I pronounced as the word “let”. Boy was I dumb, and everyone let me know it.
I was hungry and stopped at my favorite Italian restaurant for lunch. I walked in confidently and ordered a “Meatloaf sandwich”. “We don’t have a meatloaf sandwich”, said the man behind the counter. Now, I visited that place often, and knew that on many occasions I had enjoyed their meatloaf sandwich. So I told him, “I know you have a meatloaf sandwich, I had one just last week.” “We have no meatloaf sandwich on our menu.” We argued. I became upset, he was upset. I knew he was wrong, he knew I was wrong. One of us was dumb. I left without ordering anything and as I walked back to my truck I realized I had never eaten a meatloaf sandwich at that restaurant, but I had eaten a meatball sandwich which was great. I walked back in and told the man I was sorry and asked if he had a meatball sandwich. He said, “Now we’re talking” and made me the best meatball sandwich I’ve ever tasted.
I could go on and on and on! I’ve said some pretty dumb things. Looking back on them all I realize all I had to do was obey the Bible and keep my mouth closed when I didn’t know what I was talking about. The problem was that I did not know that I did not know. If you can overcome that condition you will go a long way in life. Success will be yours for the taking. You will seem wise beyond your years if you can simply harness the tongue about the things you don’t know. Even if you don’t know that you don’t know them!
Dr. William Howe
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