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Petty Things
Song of Solomon 2:15 It was a common thing in Israel for a man to have his own vineyard. Throughout the Scriptures you often see comparisons to the vineyard. One of the main enemies of the vineyard were the wild animals that would come in and destroy the vines. Because of this, the husbandman would build a hedge about his vineyard to keep the animals out. In the verse above, God warned about the "little foxes" destroying the vineyard. Most of the vineyards were safe from the larger animals, but the little fox could find a small gap in the hedge and get in and destroy the grapes and the vines. God is teaching us that the little things of life are what destroy more often than the big things.
As this book is mainly about marriage, we see that this verse is warning us to not allow petty things to destroy the marriage relationship. Rarely are marriages destroyed because of big things; it is usually the little things that destroy a marriage. Yes, the big things are usually what people blame for the failure of their marriage, but the big things are a result of not dealing with the little things properly. We must be careful about allowing the petty things to destroy our marriage. Most arguments in a marriage are over petty things. Most disagreements in a marriage are over petty things. For instance, ladies should not allow her husband's socks being in the middle of the floor destroy her marriage. Likewise, a man should not allow his wife not doing things like he would do them to destroy his marriage. If you are not careful, you will allow the petty things, or the "little foxes," to destroy your marriage. Furthermore, it is the little things that destroy most relationships. Many church members allow petty things to destroy their attitude towards their pastor and church. Many employees allow petty things to destroy their spirit about their place of employment. Many friends allow petty things to destroy a relationship with a good friend. If you allow the petty things to destroy relationships, then one day you will become a very lonely person. Beware of those little petty things that destroy relationships. The greatest way to avoid the petty things is to not make any relationship about you. When you make a relationship about you and what you get out of it, that is when the petty things will bother you. If you will make every relationship you have about the other person, then you will find that most of the petty things won't bother you. When you do have a little petty thing that bothers you, ask God to help you not to allow it to destroy your relationship. If you will wisely talk to the other person about that situation without losing your cool, you will often find that they didn't even know that the petty thing bothered you. More often than not they will try to avoid that petty thing in your presence if they know about it. If they don't, then be gracious to them and try to avoid what causes the petty thing to arise. Life is too short to allow the petty things to destroy our relationships with others. If you will look at the whole picture in every relationship, you will find that you can make each relationship work in spite of the petty things. Be careful about focusing on petty things, and enjoy those with whom you have relationships.
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