If you pick up a whistle and blow into it, what happens?  The whistle whistles. You probably don’t remember learning how to use the whistle… I certainly don’t.  But as a mom, I’ve seen each of my 3 boys learn.  Its funny but all of them had the same experience.

They would pick up the whistle, do it correctly and make a loud whistling sound.  Of course this excited a small boy immensely and they would each try to do it again.  The thing is they now knew the whistle was going to make a sound.  So they all would put the whistle into their mouth and then instead of blowing the whistle they would try to make the whistling sound on their own and not through the whistle.  It would take them awhile to once again figure out how to let the whistle do the work.

Why talk about whistle blowing?  As I’ve been thinking about pressing on, I’m reminded of the verse in the next chapter of Philippians:  “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (4:13)  If I can do all things, I can definitely press on to be more healthy, to be a mom who yells less, to be a wife who encourages more, to be a homemaker who takes better care of her home and to be a Christian who loves more.  But like my boys with the whistle, I need to let the whistle (Christ) do the work.  Otherwise all my trying will result in a muted imitation blowing sound.

So how do I let Christ strengthen me so that I can do all things?  I’m still figuring all that out.  But for today, after I post this, I’m going to spend some time reading the Bible.  Since the first 2 Bible verses that I’ve used in this blog came from Philippians, I think I’ll go read all of it to see what else God has to say to me through it.

Are you letting the whistle do the work?  I’d love to hear how you do.  If not, I’d love for you to join me as we press on and more and more allow Christ to strengthen us.