As a child, I was the textbook image of what people are thinking when they use the phrase “avid reader”. I have a horrible sense of direction - can’t find my way out of a paper bag, and no kidding! - because from the time I could sound out words, I brought a book with me everywhere I went, especially in the car. I can remember pleasant days spent in my room lying in all sorts of crazy positions on my bed, reading, reading, reading, and laughing out loud hilariously at Beezus, Henry, and other characters in Beverly Cleary’s stories. I was always in the middle of reading one book or another, and always had a book close at hand (or in my hand!).
This trend continued throughout my elementary years and on into high school, where I read a steady diet of mostly classic novels, with a few biographies and Christian fiction novels thrown in for good measure. In my late teens, I lived in Moscow, Russia, and I used the hours and hours of riding on the public transit system to read, read, and read some more.
Fast forward to the time when I started working full-time… and then got married and had my own house to keep… and then children came on the scene. With the exception of the time I spent breast-feeding my little ones (hey, that’s some great reading time, there!), I found that I rarely had time to indulge in my favorite pastime. Or, at any rate, I felt so pressured by all my responsibilities that seemed more important that I rarely took the time.
Now? I still work full-time, I’m still married, I still have a home to keep, and I still have 2 young children, but I’ve rediscovered the joy of reading. I’ve also discovered that the benefits of reading go far beyond mere pleasure and I no longer feel guilty when I make the time to read. In fact, I’ve learned that it’s a priority for me, right up there with keeping the house clean and getting dressed in the morning. With the modern convenience of Kindle (and a larger purse where I can stuff a paperback if necessary), I always have a book handy to read in stolen moments.
My challenge to you is this: no matter your season in life, make time to read. I look back regretfully on those intervening years where I consciously made the decision not to read and to focus on other things that demanded my attention, and wish I had taken the time to read.
Why do I think you should take time to read? Personally, I feel like the benefits of reading a good book go far above and beyond the mere pleasure it brings to passing time. I would go so far as to say that aside from spending time with your Heavenly Father and your earthly family and friends, reading books is the best thing you can do for your mind and your spirit. 
1. Reading relaxes the mind.
And this is a good thing! As women (many of us wives and mothers), we have a constantly running mental list of things to do and things to worry about. That constant track resounding in your head serves a good purpose (otherwise, how would anything ever get done?!) but it gets tiresome. It depresses, it weighs you down, it stresses you out, and it leaves you in a cranky, irritable state that no one enjoys - not even you!
I’m not saying you need to eliminate this mental process from your life - like I said, it serves a worthy purpose - but you absolutely do need a break from it. A break from your never-ending responsibilities gives you a chance to re-charge and attack those responsibilities with renewed vigor when you return to them. Life is a beautiful rhythm of work and rest, and you need to develop the habit of resting your brain and relaxing the internal pressure that you place on yourself.
Reading provides a wonderful way to temporarily silence this running mental track that exhausts you physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Not all books are suitable for this purpose - books about dieting, housecleaning, or child-rearing, while valuable for other reasons, will probably have the opposite effect! In my family, we call books that provide a mental escape “brain candy”, i.e., damaging if you make it a steady mental diet, but pleasurable and not harmful on occasion. Brain candy books are kind of short and fluffy - just a light story without any real depth that gives you a mental break and a chance to recoup your thoughts for dealing with real life and its real troubles.
But brain candy isn’t the only type of reading that relaxes your mind - anything that directs your thoughts away from their usual well-run course of dishes to do, bathrooms to clean, homework to supervise, menus to plan, will serve the purpose admirably. I like to intersperse brain candy with other selections that have benefits beyond relaxation.
2. Reading informs the mind.
Now this is a given, and it doesn’t only apply to non-fiction. Even a well-written piece of fiction can inform you about a time and place that is otherwise foreign to you. I’ve learned about Philadelphia Quakers during the American Revolution, the earliest settlers in the “wild west” (prior to the Louisiana Purchase) and all that they faced, turn-of-the-century immigrants and the struggles they endured, the life of a Caribbean pirate in the 1800’s, silk farmers in India, Jews in the time of Christ, medieval lords and peasants, and many more, all from novels. A well-researched novel (sometimes a novel makes me so curious about a time period or a place that I research it to see if the book was really accurate) can teach you more about history and foreign cultures than any course you could take at school.
Books such as these can make you aware of situations - political, religious and social - that you never even thought about, and can help inform your views about them. A really good book explores various aspects of the topic at hand so you can have a good understanding of the issue and come to reasonable conclusions about it. 
3. Reading develops empathy.
A well-written book can also delve into the mind of a person in a very different situation in life from your own, and give you glimpses into the heart of another person. However fictional that person might be, you can gain understanding about the driving forces in their life that lead them to make decisions you wouldn’t otherwise understand. Right now, I’m reading a fictional book about a woman who escapes an abusive husband. It’s a situation I have no personal knowledge of, and reading a book about it doesn’t make me an expert by any means, but it does help me understand what that kind of life is like for the women who have to go through it.
Reading doesn’t replace actual experience when it comes to real-life issues like this, but it does help create empathy within you for others who deal with struggles you will never face. In my opinion, that is one of the most powerful gifts that reading can give - to take the chance to walk in another person’s shoes for a while, if only in your imagination.
4. Reading challenges you.
Depending on the type of book, the challenge can be physical, spiritual, or emotional. Non-fiction books can challenge you in your work, your child-rearing, your scheduling, your relationships, your diet and nutrition… anything, really! There’s a book on every subject, so you can certainly find one that will challenge you to be your best in every area of your life.
Even fiction can challenge you spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. Well, good fiction can. This is where you need more than brain candy! My most favorite books are the ones that challenge either the way I think, the way I feel, or the way I relate to God and my fellow man. These books are the ones I will re-read.
God calls us to do everything in our life heartily - our very best - for His honor and glory. A good book will challenge you to do just that! 
5. Reading connects you to greater minds.
The wonderful thing about God’s creation of humankind is that each one of us has our own working brain, and the thoughts within our mind are privy only to ourselves and to God unless we choose to share them with others. Each one of us thinks in a different way from everyone else, and we all benefit from the glimpses of perspective we receive when other people share their thoughts either verbally or via the written word.
The wonderful thing about the invention of books is that we have access to the great minds of previous generations. Because of the written word and its preservation through the ages, we can learn about those who have gone before us and all that they learned and experienced. In this way, each generation is able to build on the knowledge of previous generations… and if we heeded what they were telling us, we could avoid a lot of heartache and evil.
I tend to think of the greatest minds in historical terms, because I feel that the test of time is the greatest of all tests in determine the quality of one’s thoughts, but books can connect you to today’s great thinkers and communicators as well.
6. Reading sharpens the mind.
There’s a caveat here: if you just read, mindlessly accepting everything that passes your eye, there will be no mind-sharpening. Or precious little, at any rate. The sharpening of the mind occurs when you read actively, engaging your mind (this is why brain candy needs to be kept to a minimum, or you’ll have brain softening instead!) to discern whether what you’re reading is true or not.
To read actively, you must ask yourself while you’re reading if what is being said is true or not. Weigh your own knowledge, understanding, and experience against what the book is conveying to you, and decide if you agree or not. What makes the author draw the conclusions he or she draws? What leads a character in a story to make the decision they make? Is God glorified in what is being read? Or is evil lifted up?
This applies to fiction and non-fiction, by the way. Anything that goes into your mind needs to pass a filter that weighs the truth of what is attempting to be absorbed. This can be an exhausting practice but it is essential to get the most out of what you read. And when you read critically in this way, it will sharpen your mind, even as it relaxes you and brings balance to your busy life.
So, busy mom (or college student, or full-time working woman), make some time in your schedule to read! Don’t think of it as a guilty pleasure, think of it as a necessity for your life. Nourishing your mind is just as important as nourishing your body, so do yourself a favor and make time for it.
Want to see what I’m reading? I’d love to see what YOU’RE reading! Join me at Goodreads, where I keep track of books I enjoy (and even books I don’t)! I’d love a sneak peek onto your bookshelf, too.
Join Our Summer Book Club!
Some blogging friends and I are going to spend the next six weeks talking all about reading… and sharing our favorite books with you! Follow our blogs to join in the discussion and find some new favorite books to love. We’ll also be chatting about our blog posts - and the books we love - in our Facebook community for women, Christian Homemaking Community.
Click on the links below to read what other bloggers have to say about reading:
