Reading good books is a discipline that many have lost or never acquired. Many tell me that they do not read well. We were all there at one point, but we learned to read; that is a basic purpose of school. Reading is a skill that all but an exceedingly small minority can do well with practice. God, in His wisdom and sovereignty, had the Bible, the Word of God, preserved in writing. He is the one who created us in His image; He made our minds. The best and fastest way to grow in wisdom is by reading. I became a reader at a very young age. My Mom and my Dad would read to us kids when we were small and instilled in us a love of books and a desire to read. I still remember some of my favorite stories. We drove up and down the West Coast following my Dad as he was stationed at various Naval bases. When we were about to drive to another location, Mom would check out a cardboard box full of books for me to read while she drove, and we would turn them back in at the library in the next town we moved to. When Dad retired and we moved to our first farm, thirteen miles outside of town, a bookmobile would drive out near our place once a week, and I would check out books there. My sixth-grade teacher, Mrs. Wilson, had a thirty-volume set of paperback books that were a series of stories about a young Christian man and his adventures. She offered anyone who would agree to read them all an A in reading. I decided to take the challenge and read every one of them, and the spiritual lessons in each tremendously impacted me. The key to faithful reading is to set a goal and stick to it so a good habit forms. My goal now is to read 20 pages a day, 5 days a week. That is about 5,000 pages a year, or about 20 books, depending on their size. I have friends who read 100 books a year, which is two books every week. The more you read, the better you read, that is, the faster you read and the more you retain, and the more you read, the more you enjoy reading. The main thing is that the more you read, the wiser and smarter you will become. Don’t let the business of life and the things in the world keep you from growing your brain.