I’ve always thought it would be exciting to live in a lighthouse. Working by the water and serving a vital job during big storms would be an exhilarating adventure. Last summer, my family and I toured the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse located in Peninsula State Park, in Door County, Wisconsin. Perched atop a bluff 76 feet above the waters of Lake Michigan, it served as an important aid for ships navigating through the Strawberry Channel.

This lighthouse still functions today but is automated. No one lives there; it is now a museum.

The history of William and Julia Duclon and their seven sons, the keepers of the lighthouse in the late 1800s, fascinated me during our tour of Eagle Bluff. The lighthouse had been restored to what it looked like in their time and is still furnished with many of their belongings. The piano they played is still there, along with a cello, guitar and trumpet. The list of the family’s daily duties is still posted. The list includes 26 physical tasks that needed to be completed—most of them daily.

The seven boys shared two bedrooms. Some of their old wooden toys are still there, and one item particularly grabbed my attention. It was a wooden box full of books. A sign posted on the box read: USLHE Library Box.

The delivery of library boxes began in 1876. On each visit, the U.S. Light-House Establishment tender ship would deliver a traveling library box. Each box held approximately 50 books. Included was a mix of history, fiction, poetry and scientific works. The books were carefully chosen based on a good standard appropriate for the families who would read them. By 1893, over 700 libraries were circulating throughout the lighthouse system. Each box was constructed according to specific dimensions.

According to Beach Combing, “A little space above the second shelf, about an inch and a half high, is utilized on one side by a copy of the New Testament, with Psalms and a hymnal ….”

The box on display at the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse was box number 421. Ladies would sometimes place recipe cards inside the pages of the books to share with the next lighthouse family.

Imagine being one of the children living at Eagle Bluff Lighthouse in the year 1880. Your days would be filled with tasks around the lighthouse, schoolwork, music, lots of playing outside—swimming, fishing, building rafts. Then when the sun set over Lake Michigan, the lighthouse would be lit for the evening, the fires would be started in the woodstove on colder nights, the kerosene lamps would be lit in the living room, and you could open up your brand-new library box. No radio, no television, no Internet, no smartphones, no computers, no social media … just you, your family and some good books.

You would have time to read, to think, to dream. That sounds like a wonderful life to me! Maybe it would seem boring at first to some, but once they slowed down and got rid of all the distractions, they would find time for a life-changing depth of study and depth of thought.

Are you too distracted to read?

Most are today. In “The Lost Art of Slow Reading,” Stephen Flurry wrote: “Even some educators are waking to the dangerous pitfalls of online multitasking and cursory or superficial reading. A few are even calling for us to return to the tried-and-tested method of slowly poring over the printed word. According to the Associated Press, one teacher “is encouraging schools from elementary through college to return to old strategies such as reading aloud and memorization as a way to help students truly ‘taste’ the words. He uses those techniques in his own classroom, where students have told him that they’ve become so accustomed to flitting from page to page online that they have trouble concentrating while reading printed books” (Trumpet, October-November 2010).

Think about a lighthouse family. No distractions. Reading was not a chore to hurry through; it was the activity—something to savor.

2 Timothy 2:15 says, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

The Greek word for “workman” refers to one who exerts strenuous effort to study the right way. The focus of this passage is the study of God’s Word, which is essential—but we can apply the principle to our overall reading. It takes effort to block out distractions and focus on what you are reading.

The lighthouse family could intensely focus on their library box.

An online auction site that is selling one of these library boxes (without the books for $15,000) states: “[The library box] was a wonderful treat to the keepers and families as they had basically memorized all the books by the time the new supply came once per season” (emphasis added).

Put yourself in the shoes of a lighthouse family. They had time to read, and they loved reading! But they only had so many books; and once a new box came, the old one would be taken away.

The Eagle Bluff Lighthouse family kept their first box from Aug. 1, 1898, to May 26, 1899—ten months to read and get all they could out of 50 books! And usually, the library box would rotate every three months. They would not see those books again—at least for some time! So they read them, thought about them, memorized some of them, and probably copied favorite sections down.

For years these library boxes passed from lighthouse to lighthouse. Then around 1920, with radio and telephone coming on the scene, the libraries were no longer sent. Life sped up. People became more connected with each other, but they lost connection with books. Most became too busy to read as they once had.

DoorCountyPulse.com writes, “Like echoes of a bygone era, these bookcases and their lighthouse counterparts serve as poignant reminders of a way of life that has all but disappeared. They stand as silent sentinels, guarding a heritage of courage, solitude, and the unquenchable thirst for knowledge.”

That way of life must not disappear for us. We need to take the time to read—to fill our unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Now, when you are young, is the time to develop a love and habit of reading.

“Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine” (1 Timothy 4:12-13).

Writing to a young Timothy, the Apostle Paul is instructing him to be a good example, in conversation, etc. Paul admonishes Timothy to give attendance to reading and become well read while he is young (which was probably in his 30s).

Keep this connection between reading and our conversations in mind. Notice Luke 6:45, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.”

Whatever we put into our minds is what we will talk about. Good conversations come from good reading. Think of yourself as a living library box. When you open your mouth to speak, you reveal what is in the box.

Is your box full of good books, or of YouTube videos?

When you come into a conversation, you are like a new library box being delivered to a lighthouse. When you are opened up—when you begin to speak—what will people find inside?

Ecclesiastes 10:12 says: “The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.” Gracious means “pleasant, precious, well-favored.” They are words that have value to them. They benefit others.

Having a conversation with a lighthouse family would have been enlightening. I am sure they would have spoken of their daily tasks and experiences in the lighthouse, but most of their conversation would have revolved around the library box. They would have spoken about what they were reading. If we treasure valuable information in our minds, we will speak about it.

Remember, you are a living library box. When you speak, you show what is inside. Put God’s Word and the best books into your personal library box!