The Ballestero Blog

If You Had A Mule!

In early American history, frontiersmen eked out a meager existence, in the harshest of times. Often, survival was directly connected to hard work, and the kindnesses of Mother Nature.

At best, one man by himself could barely grow enough food to last him through the long winters.  He was glad to just get by.

But if he had a mule, life took an immediate upturn. More work was accomplished. He often was able to plow his 40 acres and harvest enough for himself and have enough left over to sell or trade.

It was by the help of the mule, that many a man moved from the survival mode to a more comfortable lifestyle.

The homesteader took very good care of his mule. His success was directly tied to the mule. The mule needed to be healthy, and to keep it healthy, it must be cared for.

• After working in the field all day, the mule was rubbed down with a burlap bag.
• It was curried with a brush.
• It was watered first, before the man.
• It was fed first, before the man.
• The man, would check to see if it needed shoes.
• Even if the man didn’t have good shoes, his mule did.
• If it needed shoes, that was a first order of business. It was a priority.
• After the mule was taken care of, the man then focused on his own needs.

(That was how I started a Bible Study many years ago, as pastor of Christ Temple Apostolic Church in South Bend.

I said, “I risk angering all the wives here tonight with my unkind comparison of them to a work animal. I apologize ahead of time.

“It is no secret that some men would take better care of a mule, than they would their own wife.” I continued…)

Men, I know this is over a hundred years later, but you’d be still in the survival mode without your good wife. It would be impossible for a man to list all of the duties and chores his wife routinely accomplishes for the betterment of his home. Too often, she does a hard days work without a word of praise or thanks.

She is ordered around, and treated far beneath her pay grade, which too often, is nothing at all. The man pockets the money, spends what he wants on himself. She has an empty purse. Some men spend $50 or more on a golf game, fishing supplies or a days hunt.

His wife has to ask him for money for hairspray, hose and personal items. God forbid she would ever ask for a pair of shoes or a dress. For her, it is demeaning to have to ask.

She made him a home. She sacrificed her health, her youth and her life to raise him a family. She does his cleaning, his cooking, and attends to his whims. Yet she is not allowed to enjoy the bounty and fruit of her labor on the same level her husband does. Shame on you sir.

If you had a mule, you would take better care of it, than you do your own wife!

At that point in my Bible Class, a chunk of plaster about as big as a pie pan fell from the ceiling and landed on Bro. McKinnies’ head.

As soon as I saw that he was not hurt, I pointed at him and said, “It’s you I’m talking about!”

We all laughed.

My sermon was over…