A family can learn a lot from Alaska’s singing voles. This rodent constructs a labyrinth of chambers about seven inches below ground. The singing vole prefers raising a family just a little above the tree line, in the “moderate” climes of northern and southern Alaska.

            Our vole vocalist is also called the hay mouse, (only six inches long with a stubby tail), who burrows with sharp narrow claws below veins of arctic shrubbery and rocks.

            From the front yard, above her house, a maze of vole trails lead to patches of tasty willow, fields of horsetail, and lush grasses.

            Don’t ever turn down an invitation to tour Mrs. Vole’s earthen home below the tundra surface. She is a naturally-gifted interior decorator who designs elaborate food pantries. In each chamber she caches dried grasses and roots for her family’s winter meals.

            Every year about August, elder voles supervise the youngsters who mow and stack grasses to dry upon rock terraces in the long summer days and nights. At first sign of frost, the vole family lugs these hay piles (some up to 20 inches tall!) into Mrs. Vole’s prepared pantries.  

            Within hay mouse colonies, no one ever locks their doors. Each entrance is guarded by a “singer” whose high-pitched trills and sharp chirps alert the community to anything out of the ordinary—like a wandering weasel.

            The natural instincts of the hard-working singing voles mirror the adventures of our human families as we struggle to achieve common goals.  

            The Creator of all families has stamped this timeless model “approved” for us to follow too.

 Lamentations 3:27

 ​It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.

Proverbs 31:27-28

She watches over the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praises her…

Genesis 18:19

For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.”

Prayer Focus: Lord, keep my family the priority in my life, and show me the goals we need to reach together.