Resolutions don’t mean much. Which of your New Year’s resolutions from last year can you remember? We make resolutions but rarely do we resolve to do anything different.

Let me suggest something different. Let me suggest you adopt “Best Practices for 2018.” Adopting practices for life with help you do things that will always make a difference.

Let me suggest a practice that determines to “Read, Study, Grow.”

As a pastor, I simply have to read, study, and grow. I can’t depend on my past education to give fresh, up-to-date sermons and lessons. Up-to-date sermons means that I continue to study and learn.

No matter what profession you are in or job you have, it’s imperative that you don’t quit learning.

My mother has always been pleased when her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren learned to read and spent a lot of time reading. She always told us this, “If you can read, you can learn anything.”

Many people believe that the first three or four years of school determines the future of the child. They believe this because that’s the time you learn to read. If you spend the first years learning to read, you can spend the rest of your life teaching yourself.

What a tragedy if Christians don’t continually look for ways to grow and express our faith. Let us not stop seeking to learn and practice our faith.

Let us take Paul’s encouragement to Timothy to heart: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).