They made the evening news in Bakersfield.
On one of the slopes adjoining the parking lot of a mostly deserted shopping center, someone discovered a den of foxes. Mom and babies.
Cute babies.
The local TV news station began following their progress over several weeks until they were born and the den was deserted. Then, they moved on to other more important issues like politics and global warming and world peace and the Kardashians.
Nobody ever found out what happened to those foxes as they got older. I’m sure they were still cute. Even adult foxes are kind of cute.
But I looked up “fox” in the dictionary, and it included the word “cunning.”
And cute little foxes can destroy crops.
Normally, they’re rodent-eating carnivores – so they munch on mice and graze on gophers. But it seems they have a strong attraction to fruit, especially grapes.
If they sneak into a vineyard, they can destroy the crop. But they don’t just nibble on the grapes. They burrow under the root system, damaging the vine’s ability to get nourishment. They also chew on the irrigation emitters, cutting off the water supply.
Little by little, the vines become unproductive and the crop is ruined.
If we saw a bulldozer plowing through our vineyard, we’d do everything we could to stop it. It’s big. It’s obvious. If it keeps going, the crop will be ruined.
But we see a few cute little foxes and think, “They can’t do that much damage.”
We ignore them.
A few weeks later, we wonder why the harvest is shrinking. By the time we notice, it’s too late.
There’s a lesson here – about character.
Most of us avoid the big stuff that can destroy our character because it’s obvious. But we might be ignoring the little stuff that’s nibbling on our integrity:
- We wouldn’t murder our co-worker, but we nurse a hidden hatred for them.
- We don’t rob a bank, but we “tweak” our expense reports – just a little.
- We’d never launch a verbal attack on someone in public, but we’ll do it on social media.
- We wouldn’t get addicted to a drug, but we get addicted to our phone.
- We wonder why we can’t get out of debt, but we stop for a grande latte every day on the way home.
- We’re supportive to people in person, and gossip behind their back.
- The things we do in public are different than the things we do when no one is watching.
King Solomon said, “Catch for us the little foxes – the foxes that are destroying the vineyard.”
Do you want to be a person of high character and integrity?
Don’t overlook the little foxes.
And don’t be fooled because they’re cute.
Over time, they’ll do more damage than the bulldozer.