If I asked you if you had any bad habits, what would you say?  How about good habits?  Habits can be very telling, but ultimately, they reveal what we consider important and worthy of our time and energy.

In creating The Spiritual Seeds Planner, we recognized that if we didn’t change our daily activities, we would continue to live the same life.  But by drilling down to the lowest level, day and hour, we could plan our actions, track them, and eventually see new behaviors and emotions emerge.

We want our habits to reveal a life led by God. We have asked the Holy Spirit to come into our lives and show us how to change our habits to embody the Fruit of the Spirit.  As we begin February, we’d like to share tools and ideas with you on how to examine your habits and make that shift!

Leann and I both (independently!) were called to read a new book. We had listened to the same podcast that called out three books, and we had both chosen The Common Rule, Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction by Justin Earley.  Not only would we highly recommend this book, but we really want to share with you the BIG IDEAS of how daily and weekly activities (habits) can have huge impact. 

Justin describes it “The Common Rule is a set of daily and weekly practices designed to form us in the love of God and neighbor” and attests “Habits of attention are habits of LOVE”.

Daily Habits:

Kneeling prayer at morning, midday, and bedtime.

Scripture before phone.

One meal with others.

One hour with phone off.

 

Weekly Habits:

One hour of conversation with a friend.

Curate media to 4 hours.

Fast from something for 24 hours.

Sabbath.

 

I love that they sound doable! But are they?  Leann and I are committed to using them within our weekly planning and would invite you to do the same.  You’ll read in the book that you don’t have to jump in with every habit at once.  Work into it.  Write them in your planner each week and then reflect on how you did and if you’re ready to add the next one to your upcoming week.

 

Think about Justin’s phrase of love of God and neighbor.  Reading the habits, you can understand how adopting these would enable you to show your love and receive it as well!

 

Give it a try.  Read or listen to The Common Rule and incorporate these habits into your Spiritual Seeds planning.  We think these are habits that will reflect your faithfulness and love for others.  Feels good right?

Good God, I ask that Your Holy Spirit guide me as I plant new habits that will bring me closer to you.  

 

 

Click here for the book  or the audiobook of Justin Earley’s The Common Rule, Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction.

 

Julie Rood
Tagged: Habits Tools