Artboard%206.png)
Artboard%204.png){kind=small}
Artboard%205.png)
Artboard%207.png)
Artboard%201.png)
Artboard%203.png)
Artboard%202.png)
LOVE OF GOD
Another way to look at the habits is as they pertain to love of God. You were made to love and be loved by God. Only in the light of his love will you finally see who you really are, feel how you are supposed to feel, and discover what you should do with your days.
LOVE OF NEIGHBOR
When we think of better habits, we often think about our own self-improvement. Nothing could be further from the purpose of the Common Rule. These habits are meant to be practiced with others for their sake.
EMBRACE
Embrace is a reminder that there is much good in the world God made. God's presence––not his absence––is the primary fact of the world. That we need each other––not that we harm each other––is the primary truth of being human.
RESIST
When we practice resistance, we acknowledge that evil and suffering are very real, though they aren't how the world was made to be. But remember that resistance has a purpose: love. The habits of resistance aren't supposed to shield you from the world but to turn you toward it.
The Daily Habits
Artboard%202.png)
KNEELING PRAYER THREE TIMES A DAY
The world is made of words. Even small, repeated words have power. Regular, carefully placed prayer is one of the keystone habits of spiritual formation and is the beginning of building the trellis of habit. By framing our day in the words of prayer, we frame the day of love.
Artboard%201.png)
ONE MEAL WITH OTHERS
We were made to eat, so the table must be our center of gravity. The habit of making time for one communal meal each day forces us to reorient our schedules and our space around food and each other. The more the table becomes our center of gravity, the more it draws our neighbors into gospel community.
ONE HOUR WITH PHONE OFF
We were made for presence, but so often our phones are the cause of our absence. To be two places at a time is to be no place at all. Turning off our phone for an hour a day is a way to turn our gaze up to each other, whether that be children, coworkers, friends, or neighbors. Our habits of attention are habits of love. To resist absence is to love neighbor.
Artboard%208.png)
Artboard%203.png)
SCRIPTURE BEFORE PHONE
Refusing to check the phone until after reading a passage of Scripture is a way of replacing the question "What do I need to do today?" with a better one, "Who am I and who am I becoming?" We have no stable identity outside of Jesus. Daily immersion in the Scriptures resists the anxiety of emails, the anger of the news, and the envy of social media. Instead it forms us daily in our true identity as children of the King, dearly loved.