Read On, Baby!
As a pastor, one of the blessed joys God has given me is a wife who has been and is such an encouragement to me at home and at church. Though I am not always as appreciative as I should be, every now and then God shakes me up and shows me my wife in another light and I get a greater sense of his love and mercy to me through her.
For example, if you were to ask my wife about reading books, I am confident that she would tell you that she is not a voracious reader. According to her, she reads rather slow and thus does not make her way through books as frequently as she desires. Nevertheless, I have found it most encouraging that she has not allowed her deliberate style of reading to frustrate her so that she does not read at all. On the contrary, she understands the role reading can have in her continued growth and maturity in Christ. Consequently, she fights to read and over the years I have witnessed her growth and it has been an encouragement to both her families – home and church.
Currently she is reading three books:
Respectable Sin: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate by Jerry Bridges.
A Way with Words: What Women Should Know About the Power They Possess by Christin Ditchfield
Practical Theology for Women: How Knowing God Makes a Difference in Our Daily Lives by Wendy Alsup
From time to time I see her reading or I will pick up a book and see where the bookmark is and I ask her how it is going. What I hear is that she is growing. I am reminding that growth comes not only in the reading, but also in the struggle to overcome whatever obstacles there may be to our growth.
Therefore, whatever reading challenges you face today, I want to encourage you to fight through them. It is not how much you read so long as you are reading. Don’t get caught up in what others are doing, or how much they appear to be reading (appearances are deceptive). Remember, we read for the glory of Christ, not the approval or impression of others.
To my wife I say, “Read on, baby!” The heart Christ is forming in you is not only changing you but it is encouraging us around you to love and grow as well.
East Point Church 
I love to read, but it’s a hard and slow business. I have dyslexia, and although I have made much progress, reading is still very slow and painful. But thank you for encouraging me, and your wife, to push onward!
For the first time in our six years of marriage, my wife and I are following the same devotional plan this year. I want to grow in bringing up spiritual topics, so I often ask her what stood out to her in the day’s reading. Almost every time she blows me away with her observations. The depth of her thinking is often far beyond mine! I am thankful for a wife that pushes me and challenges me!