What book or books can you point to as having significant impact on your life? Is it a book read early on in your education or one read as you sought greater success in the market place or on the career ladder? Who recommended the book to you?

Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich has been described as the “Granddaddy of All Motivational Literature” in several book reviews. It is the bestselling success book of all time. Originally published in 1937, it continues to offer timeless insight to the question, “What makes a winner?” to a new generation of leaders.

Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king. When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. … “Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.” – 2Kings 22:10-11 & 13. Josiah became king at eight years of age. His dad Amon had been assassinated as he followed the evil ways of his father Manasseh. Manasseh had rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed. While his great-grandfather had walked faithfully before the Lord, there were two generations before Josiah that did evil in the eyes of the Lord. At age eighteen, Josiah was introduced to a book that would change his life and his kingdom. The Book of the Law was read to him and he sought validation that his understanding of the book was accurate. With new-found purpose, He went up to the temple of the Lord with the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets … He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, … The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord – to follow the Lord and keep His commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant. – 2Kings 23:2-3. Be a Josiah dad – read the Bible and read it as a family.

While Think and Grow Rich provides insight for success in this secular world, the Bible opens hearts and minds to significance beyond this world. Halftime by Bob Buford and From Success to Significance by Lloyd Reeb are good reads that point to the biblical perspective. In the My Utmost for His Highest devotional, Oswald Chambers writes, “Spiritually, we cannot measure our life by success, but only by what God pours through us, and we cannot measure that at all.” Be a Josiah dad by reading the Bible individually and as a family, and you will have immeasurable influence across generations.

Prayer guide: Thank You Lord for Your word and the foundation it provides for life. I have looked to many ‘self-help’ books for the secret to success in this world. I know success is not a bad thing but the line can be crossed when it becomes a god. Forgive me. Equip me to live under the authority of my favorite book, Your book the Bible, and to share Scripture with my bride and family every day. Help me be a Josiah dad. That is the dad You call me to be, and that’s the dad my kids need to see. Amen.

A faithful father reads the Bible individually and as a family.