The phrase keystone habit refers to a seemingly small habit that sets in motion a ripple effect, positively impacting many other areas of your life. Keystone habits include things like making your bed, family dinner around the table, and regular exercise. While these daily rhythms may seem inconsequential, these and other similar routines can bring countless benefits to your life. For example, many people quickly find that regular exercise increases alertness during the day and improves sleep at night. Regular exercising is a habit that can make you feel better overall, positively impacting the rest of your day, even when you’re not exercising. Gathering as a family for dinner around the table is so beneficial for children (and the rest of the family) that the American College of Pediatricians recommends that “pediatricians should encourage parents to make every effort to regularly gather around the “Family Table” for meals” (https://acpeds.org/the-benefits-of-the-family-table/). These small keystone habits positively impact your life, making it easier to form other good habits which in turn lead to more good habits.

Keystone habits are just as relevant to your growth as a Christian as they are to other aspects of your life. Just as there are keystone habits that positively impact the health of your physical body and your relationships, there are keystone habits that positively impact your spiritual health and your growth as a disciple of Jesus. Can you guess what the number one spiritual keystone habit is? You guessed it!—regularly reading the Bible. This is the spiritual keystone habit that positively impacts all other spiritual habits. This is the rising tide that raises all the boats. If you are regularly experiencing meaningful time reading God’s word, you are much more likely to participate in other Christian practices too, like praying, giving, serving, gathering for worship, and fasting. But if you do not regularly read God’s word on your own, it becomes difficult to sustain other meaningful Christian disciplines. Just as it is normal for babies to desire milk, so we ought to desire God’s word. If an infant is not eating and is not crying to be fed, something is wrong. If we are not being fed daily with the word of God and we are not crying out for it, then something is wrong with us spiritually. Without reading God’s word regularly, we will become spiritually malnourished. But when we diligently read his word, it will fuel our growth in Christlikeness in so many other ways too.

Are there any keystone habits that you need to form in your day-to-day life? Are there any spiritual keystone habits that you need to form? If you want to grow spiritually in 2026, the first best thing you can do is begin a habit of regularly reading God’s word. That is the first step to take on the path that leads to spiritual maturity.