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The Common Rule Youth Edition: Growing Your Faith in a Distracted World
In a world buzzing with screens and endless notifications, youth are navigating more noise than ever. The Common Rule Youth Edition provides clarity and purpose, tailored specifically for teens and tweens (grades 6-12). Adapted from Justin Whitmel Earley's bestselling book, The Common Rule Youth Edition empowers young readers to break free from the stress and anxiety that modern life can impose.
The Common Rule Youth Edition equips young people with the tools to help them find peace and fulfillment through simple, intentional habits designed to foster freedom and rest. Earley draws on his own experiences to illustrate how small actions can lead to significant transformation.
Initiate a practice of humility and gratitude by setting aside time for intentional prayer each day.Daily Scripture Cultivate a habit of reading and reflecting on scriptures to nourish your spiritual journey.Digital Schedule regular breaks from screens and social media to encourage mindfulness and presence in real-world interactions.Weekly Community Prioritize spending quality time with family or friends to build strong, supportive relationships.Sabbath Dedicate one day a week to rest and rejuvenation, free from work and electronic distractions.Shared Engage in communal meals that emphasize connection and conversation, strengthening bonds over food.The Common Rule Youth Edition goes beyond mere advice. With expanded content and study guide questions, it sparks individual reflection and group discussions, making it perfect for personal growth and community learning. The Common Rule Youth Edition offers a roadmap to a balanced and meaningful life
The Common Rule Youth Edition equips young people with the tools to help them find peace and fulfillment through simple, intentional habits designed to foster freedom and rest. Earley draws on his own experiences to illustrate how small actions can lead to significant transformation.
Initiate a practice of humility and gratitude by setting aside time for intentional prayer each day.Daily Scripture Cultivate a habit of reading and reflecting on scriptures to nourish your spiritual journey.Digital Schedule regular breaks from screens and social media to encourage mindfulness and presence in real-world interactions.Weekly Community Prioritize spending quality time with family or friends to build strong, supportive relationships.Sabbath Dedicate one day a week to rest and rejuvenation, free from work and electronic distractions.Shared Engage in communal meals that emphasize connection and conversation, strengthening bonds over food.The Common Rule Youth Edition goes beyond mere advice. With expanded content and study guide questions, it sparks individual reflection and group discussions, making it perfect for personal growth and community learning. The Common Rule Youth Edition offers a roadmap to a balanced and meaningful life
192 pages, Paperback
Published June 3, 2025
15 people are currently reading
118 people want to read
About the author
Justin Whitmel Earley
11 books651 followersJustin Whitmel Earley (JD, Georgetown University) is the creator of The Common Rule, a program of habits designed to form us in the love of God and neighbor. He is also a mergers and acquisitions lawyer in Richmond, Virginia. He previously spent several years in China as the founder and general editor of The Urbanity Project and as the director of Thought and Culture Shapers, a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the community through arts. He and his wife, Lauren, have four sons and live in Richmond, Virginia.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 24, 2025
This book will kick off my youth group's school year. I'm looking forward to seeing how a change of habits will transform the lives of our youth and bring them closer to living like Jesus.
January 20, 2026
Summary: Eight spiritual habits or practices for teens and tweens to help them grow in their faith.
I first trusted my life to Christ at age eleven and seriously began following Christ when I was just short of sixteen. I heard a lot about how to become Christian. Then I went on retreats that encouraged me in my faith in Christ. But no one for a long time shared with me about how I might grow in my faith. So, it is with great pleasure that I welcomed the publication of Justin Whitmel Early’s The Common Rule Youth Edition. In additional to seeing how helpful his earlier The Common Rule was with the young adults with whom I worked, I thought, “this is the book I wish I had as a teen follower of Jesus.”
This book is much like his earlier book. He offers eight habits, four daily and four weekly. Two of each focus on loving God and two on loving neighbor. Also, two of focus on embracing the good in God’s world and two of each on resisting destructive cultural influences. They are:
Daily:
Kneeling Prayer morning, midday, and bedtime (Love God/embrace)
One meal with others. (Love neighbor/embrace)
One hour with phone off (Love neighbor/resist)
Scripture before phone (Love God/resist)
Weekly:
One hour of conversation with a friend (Love neighbor/embrace)
Four hours of physical activity (Love neighbor/resist)
Fast from something for twenty-four hours (Love God/resist)
Sabbath (Love God/embrace)
The one difference from the adult version is substituting four hours of physical activity for “curate media to four hours.” This recognizes the need of teens for intense physical activity for both physical and spiritual health as well as the gift of our bodies which our screen-oriented society encourages us to neglect. Also, it does set some boundaries on social media.
A chapter is devoted to each of the eight habits. Early offers an explanation of each habit and then a practical section at the end with “The Habit at a Glance,” “Three Ways to Start,” and “Three Considerations.”
One of the ideas of a “common rule” is to pursue these practices with others and Early offers suggestions for sharing these practices in a youth ministry in church, or with friends in a school setting. He adapts the practices to the lives of middle and high schoolers. He also recognizes that meals together may need to be negotiated with parents and refraining from food should be cleared with them and never be done by someone with an eating disorder.
Early opens the book discussing the value of habit, including the pattern of destructive habits that brought him to create the Common Rule. But what I thought of even greater help is his concluding chapter on failure, something I often struggled with as a young Christian (and still do!). Early suggests that when we fall, we fall into grace. And so we get up and “keep walking toward beauty.” He observes how a life consists of the small daily decisions to get up and keep embracing these habits of faithfulness.
This is not a “silver bullet.” If there is one, I haven’t found it. But I can see how this might be so helpful in a youth ministry, particularly with supportive adults who are also using the rule. And the practices lend themselves to be fleshed out with scripture and prayer resources. Furthermore, these habits temper or replace destructive habits fostered in our culture, offering another way to live. I hope this book enjoys wide use.
_______________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
I first trusted my life to Christ at age eleven and seriously began following Christ when I was just short of sixteen. I heard a lot about how to become Christian. Then I went on retreats that encouraged me in my faith in Christ. But no one for a long time shared with me about how I might grow in my faith. So, it is with great pleasure that I welcomed the publication of Justin Whitmel Early’s The Common Rule Youth Edition. In additional to seeing how helpful his earlier The Common Rule was with the young adults with whom I worked, I thought, “this is the book I wish I had as a teen follower of Jesus.”
This book is much like his earlier book. He offers eight habits, four daily and four weekly. Two of each focus on loving God and two on loving neighbor. Also, two of focus on embracing the good in God’s world and two of each on resisting destructive cultural influences. They are:
Daily:
Kneeling Prayer morning, midday, and bedtime (Love God/embrace)
One meal with others. (Love neighbor/embrace)
One hour with phone off (Love neighbor/resist)
Scripture before phone (Love God/resist)
Weekly:
One hour of conversation with a friend (Love neighbor/embrace)
Four hours of physical activity (Love neighbor/resist)
Fast from something for twenty-four hours (Love God/resist)
Sabbath (Love God/embrace)
The one difference from the adult version is substituting four hours of physical activity for “curate media to four hours.” This recognizes the need of teens for intense physical activity for both physical and spiritual health as well as the gift of our bodies which our screen-oriented society encourages us to neglect. Also, it does set some boundaries on social media.
A chapter is devoted to each of the eight habits. Early offers an explanation of each habit and then a practical section at the end with “The Habit at a Glance,” “Three Ways to Start,” and “Three Considerations.”
One of the ideas of a “common rule” is to pursue these practices with others and Early offers suggestions for sharing these practices in a youth ministry in church, or with friends in a school setting. He adapts the practices to the lives of middle and high schoolers. He also recognizes that meals together may need to be negotiated with parents and refraining from food should be cleared with them and never be done by someone with an eating disorder.
Early opens the book discussing the value of habit, including the pattern of destructive habits that brought him to create the Common Rule. But what I thought of even greater help is his concluding chapter on failure, something I often struggled with as a young Christian (and still do!). Early suggests that when we fall, we fall into grace. And so we get up and “keep walking toward beauty.” He observes how a life consists of the small daily decisions to get up and keep embracing these habits of faithfulness.
This is not a “silver bullet.” If there is one, I haven’t found it. But I can see how this might be so helpful in a youth ministry, particularly with supportive adults who are also using the rule. And the practices lend themselves to be fleshed out with scripture and prayer resources. Furthermore, these habits temper or replace destructive habits fostered in our culture, offering another way to live. I hope this book enjoys wide use.
_______________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
August 16, 2025
3.5 stars, rounded up.
In the bestselling book The Common Rule, Justin Whitmel Earley shared his personal story of establishing new, life-giving habits that helped him break free from overwhelming stress, isolation, and unhealthy engagement with his phone, and he gave readers a guide for doing the same. The book teaches four daily habits and four weekly habits, and they involve things like reading the Bible before you pick up your phone in the morning, and having at least one hour of conversation with a friend each week. The habits are powerful because they turn people away from things that are forming them negatively, and towards practices and relationships that will improve their lives. The book struck a chord with a broad audience, and this new edition makes the message more accessible to teens.
Earley encourages teens to reflect on their daily habits and take small, significant steps towards living more present, engaged, and restful lives. The chapters are fairly short and easy to read, and they end with discussion questions and tips for putting each new habit into practice. This youth edition includes references related to school and interactions with parents, but the content is largely the same as the original book. I haven't read the adult book in years, and I am not making a page-to-page comparison, but I recognized the same points and illustrative stories, just with shorter sentences and some different application questions.
The chapters are very succinct, which will make this more accessible for some teens, especially if this is required reading for them. However, I think this book would be better if the author had reworked the content more, instead of making minor adjustments. I appreciate that he never dumbed anything down for younger readers, but there are some missed opportunities here. For example, instead of repeating the same illustrative stories from the original book, he could have switched out some of the adult-focused ones with stories from his childhood, or from teens in his life now. The stories that did come from his teenage years really stood out in this edition, because they are what will resonate with the target audience. I wish that there had been more of them.
This is a helpful book for Christian teens. It quips its readers to make small, structured habit changes that will deepen their relationships with God and others, and which will give them more peace and rest. However, I found this book mostly interchangeable with the original. The shorter sentences and shorter chapters will make this easier for teens to read, but a teen could also read the original book and take in the same content, just with more references to marriage and fewer references to school. The changes are so surface-level that this youth edition feels mostly redundant.
I received a free copy from the publisher, and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
In the bestselling book The Common Rule, Justin Whitmel Earley shared his personal story of establishing new, life-giving habits that helped him break free from overwhelming stress, isolation, and unhealthy engagement with his phone, and he gave readers a guide for doing the same. The book teaches four daily habits and four weekly habits, and they involve things like reading the Bible before you pick up your phone in the morning, and having at least one hour of conversation with a friend each week. The habits are powerful because they turn people away from things that are forming them negatively, and towards practices and relationships that will improve their lives. The book struck a chord with a broad audience, and this new edition makes the message more accessible to teens.
Earley encourages teens to reflect on their daily habits and take small, significant steps towards living more present, engaged, and restful lives. The chapters are fairly short and easy to read, and they end with discussion questions and tips for putting each new habit into practice. This youth edition includes references related to school and interactions with parents, but the content is largely the same as the original book. I haven't read the adult book in years, and I am not making a page-to-page comparison, but I recognized the same points and illustrative stories, just with shorter sentences and some different application questions.
The chapters are very succinct, which will make this more accessible for some teens, especially if this is required reading for them. However, I think this book would be better if the author had reworked the content more, instead of making minor adjustments. I appreciate that he never dumbed anything down for younger readers, but there are some missed opportunities here. For example, instead of repeating the same illustrative stories from the original book, he could have switched out some of the adult-focused ones with stories from his childhood, or from teens in his life now. The stories that did come from his teenage years really stood out in this edition, because they are what will resonate with the target audience. I wish that there had been more of them.
This is a helpful book for Christian teens. It quips its readers to make small, structured habit changes that will deepen their relationships with God and others, and which will give them more peace and rest. However, I found this book mostly interchangeable with the original. The shorter sentences and shorter chapters will make this easier for teens to read, but a teen could also read the original book and take in the same content, just with more references to marriage and fewer references to school. The changes are so surface-level that this youth edition feels mostly redundant.
I received a free copy from the publisher, and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
June 6, 2025
Based on Earley’s The Common Rule, this youth edition gives practical tips on developing new habits. He gives the background and reasons behind incorporating his Common Rule into everyday life.
While I don’t necessarily agree with every aspect of Earley’s rules they did make me think through some of the choices I’ve made in my life.
The Common Rule Youth Edition would be a great addition to a K-12 Christian school library. It is appropriate for middle school and up.
I received a complimentary copy of The Common Rule Youth Edition. This is my honest review.
While I don’t necessarily agree with every aspect of Earley’s rules they did make me think through some of the choices I’ve made in my life.
The Common Rule Youth Edition would be a great addition to a K-12 Christian school library. It is appropriate for middle school and up.
I received a complimentary copy of The Common Rule Youth Edition. This is my honest review.
September 15, 2025
3.5 stars.
This book was solid. It delivered exactly what it said it would, and it did it well. I read a lot of similar books, so it didn’t really blow me away or anything, but it definitely brought up new ways of seeing things. One thing that was nice was that it didn’t waste words; it was concise and didn’t take unnecessarily long to read. Solid overall, and I’ll definitely implement some of this stuff. Good read.
This book was solid. It delivered exactly what it said it would, and it did it well. I read a lot of similar books, so it didn’t really blow me away or anything, but it definitely brought up new ways of seeing things. One thing that was nice was that it didn’t waste words; it was concise and didn’t take unnecessarily long to read. Solid overall, and I’ll definitely implement some of this stuff. Good read.
November 4, 2025
Really only something a junior or senior in HS could handle. But for them it’s quite good.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews