Several months ago I tried a campaign of intermittent fasting because I had a pretty sizeable number of pounds I wanted to shed. As I was thinking and preparing for that discipline, I came up with the phrase: “Every Choice Counts.” It is very possible that I didn’t come up with it, but rather someone else said it, I heard it and it came out of my mental archives without a credit.  No matter. It has worked quite well for me these past several months. I was able to shed several pounds. But along with the summer drifting and winter waffling (almost literally), I began to make little compromises and small choices. Argh! They have begun to add up to something: the return of those unwanted pounds!

All this puts me in mind of the way that small things can really trip us up. The Scriptures say in that rather neglected book Song of Solomon,

“Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that are ruining the vineyards, while our vineyards are in blossom.” Song of Solomon 2:15.

The context isn’t about weight loss or anything so “un-romantic” but the principle that small things—“little foxes”—can spoil something lovely or good is quite true.

We all have choices to make that may seem small and inconsequential. But they do matter.  Each time I reach for that Little Debbie Nutty Buddy rather than drinking a glass of water or having a cheese stick instead of a carrot stick, I derail my eating plan just a little more. Last night I had “just a few” tortilla chips, silently excusing the little choice as “it’s probably only about 150 calories.” Those “little foxes” are what are sabotaging my weight loss plan. It was all going so well and then bit by tiny bit I am losing the hard-won ground.

So, today, I am going back to this mantra that has been so helpful.

But enough about dieting. What about my art work? What about the reading and writing that are part of my “work”? What about the little failures to speak a loving word or do a kind thing? Those moment by moment choices, little though they be, add up to the whole tenor of my life.

Every day that I pick up my pen or pencil and spend a few minutes practicing my calligraphy or writing for my blog, I am adding “little grains of sand” that will help me master and accomplish my goals for these areas of my life. Every time I make time to visit with my elderly mother, I am choosing the path of love that will define my life.  All those little choices and all those little things matter.

QUESTION: What little things are tearing up your “vineyard”? What choices will you make today that will define your life?