Song of Solomon 2:15 Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.
We all have them. Every. Single. One of us. “Little foxes”, that threaten to spoil the vines. Small things, maybe pet sins or bad habits, in our lives that we think are innocent and no real threat… to our marriage, our children, or our spiritual life. Yet they actually hold the potential to ruin them.
I can remember as a teenage boy being given these words of wisdom from a spiritual leader in my life who said, “Take care of sin while it’s still small.” And those words have stuck with me to this day, echoing in the back of my mind as a constant reminder of the danger of those times I find it easiest to justify the little foxes in my life.
What is it for you?…
In a marriage, it could be… a bad habit, a consuming hobby, a hidden addiction, a lack of effort or communication, an “innocent” relationship with someone of the opposite sex. No man ever plans to leave his family, abandon his home, and be an adulterer, but it all has to start somewhere as small as a look, a compromise, a letting down of his guard, and before you know it, a snowball is being formed. One that seemed so innocent at first, but ends up threatening everything he holds dear.
In parenting, it could be… an inconsistency, a seemingly insignificant compromise, a discrepancy between a parent’s words and their actions. Or it could be a “little fox” in the lives of our children that we fail to deal with while it’s still small. Think about it: Negative actions and character traits that kids end up carrying into adulthood are most often because they were allowed to develop and maintain them in their childhood. Whether it be dishonesty, disrespect, entitlement, addiction, lack of self-control, etc.
They more than likely didn’t develop those traits as an adult. They cultivated them when they were young, and they became little foxes in their lives. This is one of the reasons why it is so important from a young age to protect your child’s appetites, and as a result, protect your child’s heart. Because life habits of permanent consequence are being formed.
I’ll never forget these words from my dad as a boy…
“Son, you can smoke as many cigarettes as you want, as long as you never smoke the first one.”
And he never had to explain himself because his point was clear—take care of sin before it takes care of you. Because sin dealt with when it’s small is so much easier to overcome than sin dealt with when it’s tall.
In one’s spiritual life, it could be… a spiritual complacency, letting the basics slip, comparing ourselves among ourselves. Oh, how easy it is to let the little disciplines of the spiritual life slip… maybe even because we’re busy serving others or doing ministry. We’re too busy being a Martha and helping others, that we don’t make any time to simply be a Mary and sit at the feet of Jesus. And before you know it we’re burning our spiritual candle from both ends, because we have allowed little foxes to begin spoiling our spiritual vines.
All of these things are easy to justify and dismiss in our lives yet still have the potential to be the little foxes. And before you know it, you’re looking back at a broken marriage, a wayward child, or a spiritually apathetic and backslidden Christian.
It’s a threat for all of us…
Sometimes the foxes in our lives look so cute, fuzzy, and innocent that we think they are harmless, but in reality, they are a threat to the fruit that God desires for us to have in the different areas of our lives? But remember the end of the verse and the reason why the foxes were being taken away… “for our vines have tender grapes.”
There is much fruit in your life, your marriage, your children, and your relationship with God that is at stake. And these little foxes threaten to devour it.
These foxes are not only petty sins in our lives, but can also be a picture of our own self-deception. We can easily be fooled into thinking that which is not completely good is also not completely bad, when in reality, that is where the deception takes place. And we never see it until it has already taken hold of us. Yet it all began in our wrong thinking, as we started to justify and rationalize ‘small’ sins.
We think we can handle it. It’s not as big of a deal for us. Because even though it’s happened to others, “that would never happen to me”. Our marriage will never be ruined. Our kids will never be wayward. Our spiritual life, or lack thereof, will never be exposed.
What we often deem “acceptable” can lead to potentially irreparable damage. Small foxes that spoil the vines.
The question we need to ask ourselves is this…
Are we chasing out the little foxes in our lives, or are we feeding them?
Be honest with yourself… When is the last time you had to ‘amputate’ something out of your life because it was a small fox, a pet sin, that posed to threaten and even destroy the most important fruit that God has given you? Maybe it was a person, a habit, a hobby, or even an app on your phone. But you knew that it was a small fox that had the potential to spoil your vines.
Most failures in life are not a blowout, but a small leak, a slow fade. And it’s not usually the big obvious sins, but the small ones, the “little” foxes, that will spoil our vines.
What small foxes do you need to deal with today in your own life or the lives of those you love?
