Looking Gift Horses or Licking

Mom used to always say, “Never lick a gift horse in the mouth”. She was from Mississippi, so there was a little bit lost in translation. I didn’t know “lick”, was “look” until I was about 20. But is it good to take a gift horse without looking it over first? Usually gift horses have something wrong, and often expensively so.

Looking in the mouth can help you approximate the age and feeding ability. Do the teeth need floating or other care you may not be able to afford? If the horse is 35 and not 25, it’s going to die soon and that’s a whole series of problems when you have to deal with a thousand pound carcass. If your gift horse is a cow-hocked, ring-boned, spavined and foundered, maybe it best you don’t accept the gift after checking it out. Enter Religion.

It too is a “free” gift of salvation from sin. Sin you didn’t even know you had. Pointing out faults is a great way to make friends. Free to attend meetings and they’ll even throw in a free bible if you ask. But maybe first you should look under the hood? It is a money trick, and if you don’t “look”, be ready to take your “licks” when you find what’s below the surface. Just remember what free actually means to them, when to be in good standing you eventually have to pay. And you have to check your thinking cap in at the door. They’ll even tell you what to say, and everything else to believe. Don’t take my word for it, but do your own checking and remember if it’s a good deal, it will still be a good deal after you check it out. Missionaries will never tell you what the internet can.

Advertisement