3 Spiritual Habits I am Cultivating Right Now (Book Review: The Common Rule)

This post may contain affiliate links. These links help support me but don't cost any extra for you. It's a win-win! 

This post was originally published as Bible Study Made Simple podcast episode 25, 3 Spiritual Habits I am Cultivating Right Now (Book Review: The Common Rule). You can listen here.

I used to read a lot more than I do now. In 2019, I read over 100 books. In 2020, I really pumped the breaks and only read a few over 20. Then in 2021, I had my first kid, so that year in terms of reading books other than the Pout-Pout fish, was a wash too. I stopped tracking after 2 books…

But towards the end of 2021, and into the new year, I decided I wanted to make reading a priority again. Now I am not reading 2 books a week like I was in 2019, but I am intentionally turning off Netflix and picking up my Kindle. 

This episode is a little different than previous episodes. I have just recently finished reading a book called The Common Rule by Justin Whitmel Earley and I wanted to talk about what I learned with friends, and I thought that you, my favorite podcast listener, were the best place to start. Through reading this book, I have picked up or restarted 3 spiritual habits in my life and they have truly been so refreshing for my walk with God, so we are going to talk about them today.

My name is Eva Kubasiak, and this is Bible Study Made Simple. My goal is to give you a simple, actionable Bible study tip in each episode. But one of the things we don’t talk about as much is how Bible study shapes us. You can’t draw near to God, behold His beauty, and then walk away unchanged. As you finish this episode, set aside your phone and go about your day, I pray this doesn’t just become more information adding to the noise in your life, but I pray that you will pick one of these habits (or maybe even a habit of your own!) and make a commitment to meet God there. 

The premise of The Common Rule is that there are 8 habits, 4 weekly habits, and 4 daily habits that shape your life, and ultimately help you rest in God and help you live more like Him. They focus on who we are - truly in Christ so that we can stop striving to be someone we are not. So often, we try to define ourselves by who the world says we should be, but each of these 8 habits is a call to who we are as daughters and sons of the King. 

Earley goes into detail about each of these 8 habits, and he even gives some examples of how to introduce each of them into your life. I have gone a little off-script here and am focusing on only 3 in my life right now. Each of mine is a daily habit, but I hope to incorporate more of the weekly and the last daily habit into my life over time. For clarification, these are not in the same order as the book, but they are just how I am using them in my life. 

Habit #1: Scripture before phone. 

This habit simply means to make sure you are reading Scripture before you pick up your phone. It seems simple enough - but it has been a struggle for me. I have done versions of this in the past, where I wait to check Instagram or Facebook until after I have read my Bible. But to go as far as not picking up my phone entirely until I have picked up my Bible is a whole new ballgame. 

There is a pull that I experience in the morning to see what I missed while I was sleeping. In fact, this morning before I even realized it I was searching for my phone. I wonder if I missed a few notifications or text messages. Did something happen in the news? What emails did I get? Does someone need something now? But Earlely says that as we look at these things immediately upon waking, we start to let these things define us. We start to get our worth from how many notifications we have, or in how needed we might be with different work emails. But friend, that is not where your worth comes from. It is not where my worth comes from. 

Just this one switch in the mornings has been an exercise in discipline for me, but it really has helped shape my day. My focus is no longer on who is pinging my phone, but it has transitioned to whose child I am. 

To help this habit, I have started sleeping with my phone in a different room, or at least on a dresser away from my bed. So that even when I do have that first reaction to reach for my phone, it’s not where I am expecting it to be, and that draws my attention to do something else with those first morning moments, which brings us to habit #2. 

Habit #2: Kneeling Prayer

I have never been one to kneel by my bed to pray. God is with me everywhere, and I know that, so kneeling has never been my thing. I will pray laying in bed, or most often, I grab my prayer journal and write my prayers while I sip some hot morning coffee. 

Earley suggests in The Common Rule that posture is important, and over the past few weeks of practicing kneeling prayer, I have to agree. Getting out of my warm bed, and plopping onto the ground by the bed is not the most comfortable way to start my day, but it is an immediate surrender to God with my first motions and moments of the day. Replacing my immediate urge to unlock my phone and see what’s happening with the discipline of falling on my knees before God has genuinely changed my morning.

I start off the day grateful for what God has provided instead of looking for what I missed. I start off in a conversation with my Creator instead of scrolling through worthless feeds that don’t offer any nourishment. I start my day off knowing whose I am instead of seeking shallow validation from outside opinions. 

I have only been doing this a week or so, so it’s not a set in stone habit yet. But my prayer is that this routine carves itself into my day permanently. 

The last habit isn’t necessarily a Spiritual habit, per se. You won’t find it in a book of spiritual disciplines, but it really helps cut down on the noise in our lives, and helps us to be truly present with those around us.

Habit #3: Phone off for an hour a day. 

Turning my phone off is hard for me. And I don’t have a super important job, where people need me for emergencies or anything. But still, I hesitate to turn it off. Heck, I hesitate to leave it in another room. But I have realized the necessity of my phone being off, especially in order for me to get more deeper thinking and deeper writing done. So turning my phone off for an hour a day is something I am working on adding into my life. 

Now, to be completely honest, I haven’t been consistent with this one at all yet. It’s not something I regularly think about, and because I have a 9 month old, my schedule is a little weird right now. I am thinking the best time to turn it off for an hour will be after my husband Rhett gets home from work, but I am trying out a few different times right now to see what works best and what I can get into a rhythm with. 

However, I have done one other thing that I am going to lump into this category that has really helped keep me accountable to not be on alert 24/7 is get rid of my apple watch. I felt like my watch was interrupting me at all parts of my day, and I didn’t like that I can be interrupted 24/7. So I got a regular watch for $20 on Amazon. I have really enjoyed the freedom that has come with that. No where in the book does it talk about getting rid of an apple watch, but that’s just one way that I felt like I could apply some of the principles from the book. 

Tell me in the comments if you have any spiritual habits that you are working on right now!

Grab a copy of The Common Rule here.