Little Foxes

by Andrew Cromwell

One little change can make a big difference. We all know it’s true. A little change in tone can turn a compliment into an insult. A little change in attitude can turn a negative experience around. A little adjustment to your pace of life can mean the difference between crashing and burning and lasting for the long term.

Little things turn into big things. That’s just how it works. Little babies turn into big strapping adults. Little puppies, so cute and cuddly one day, become ugly, slobbering yard destroying beasts the next. And little expenses (think Starbucks, $0.99 app store purchases, and bank fees) turn into big money problems.

King Solomon, known as the wisest man who ever lived, once cautioned the vineyard owner to take care to keep the little foxes out of the vines (Song of Solomon 2:15). Foxes are little animals that generally seem harmless. But in a vineyard, the foxes eat the grapes and thus destroy your profit. Left unattended, one little fox turns into a colony that will eat all the grapes and leave you with nothing.

The solution to a fox problem, of course, is to get rid of the foxes (or never let them get in to begin with). But foxes look cute, they have a way of disappearing underground whenever you go searching for them and they just don’t cooperate with attempts to send them on their way. That is precisely why the vineyard owner will often ignore the foxes until they become a major problem; because by that time enough profit has been lost that they become unavoidable. But once you are infested, the solution is neither easy nor inexpensive.

What little foxes have you let live in the vineyard of your life? Perhaps the little foxes are cute and cuddly now, but if left undealt with, they will turn into a destructive force that will threaten to ruin your life. Perhaps there are financial foxes that keep you from getting a hold of your money because every time you go out you find you have spent more money and you just never seem to be able to get ahead. Or maybe there are relationship foxes that come in the form of bad attitudes and selfish behaviors you have allowed yourself to get away with and as a result the good fruit in your relationships are being threatened. Or it could be the foxes of addictive behavior that, for the moment, is under control but down the road will cease becoming a choice altogether. 

If we are wise, we will take Solomon’s advice and deal with the little foxes now, before we have to rip out the entire vineyard just to take care of a simple fox problem.