by Dona Hake
This is written in scripture and has become cliche…”It’s the little foxes that spoil the vine.” These eight words carry much truth and can be powerful to our souls if we heed to them. Something can be in full bloom, and looking beautiful and healthy, yet if a little fox if permitted to roam in the vineyard, there is going to be trouble.
I had an upsetting experience on yesterday morning. While preparing my oatmeal, I was pouring in some raisins, and one raisin fell on the floor. My German Shepherd was standing right beside me and gobbled that raisin up in no time. I immediately got on my iphone and checked for what I should do. For those of you that do not know, grapes and raisins are extremely toxic to dogs. It can cause kidney failure. I googled it into my phone, and I just felt I needed to give my vet a call. As soon as I told the technician that my 75 pound dog ate one raisin, she was quick to put me on hold and get right to the doctor. She came back to me, and said that I needed to induce vomiting on Aasha right away. The vet felt that as big as she was that the raisin probably would not affect her, but we were not taking ANY chances on it. I heeded to their advice and induced vomiting.
Now let’s look at the old saying, “It’s better to be safe than sorry.” I almost was not going to call but I just wanted to be on the safe side of the whole thing. My vet felt the same way. How could something so small be such a potential hazard? Yet it can be, and I have knew of a pet owner losing her dog to kidney failure from ingesting grapes. I have got to say that inducing vomiting on Aasha was extremely unpleasant for me to do. Honestly, I did not want to do it, but I love her too much not to have taken this measure. She looked at me with those beautiful sad eyes as she kept vomiting all over my kitchen floor not once, but five times. Even though it made me upset to have to do it, sometimes in life you just gotta do the right thing no matter how unpleasant it is.
Now, can we look at this and use it as an analogy of how the smallest of things can be poison to our hearts and minds. How many times do we feel we can afford one little thought, one little word to escape our lips. Seems harmless to us, yet that one little thought or one little word could be poisonous to our soul, and cause us great pain in the end. We must be aggressive with ourselves, and go to what ever measure we need to and rid of poisonous things in our life.
Today, I encourage you to guard the vineyard of your heart and mind. Guard it with all vigilance and care. It is those times that when all is blooming beautifully that we can be deceived and miss those “little foxes” that are assigned to destroy us. God is able to cause His wisdom, grace, and all that we need to keep our hearts guarded.