Published by IVP on June 3, 2025
Genres: Non-Fiction, Christian Life
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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 youth 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.
Prayers: Initiate a practice of humility and gratitude by setting aside time for intentional prayer each day.
Daily Scripture Reading: Cultivate a habit of reading and reflecting on scriptures to nourish your spiritual journey.
Digital Detoxes: Schedule regular breaks from screens and social media to encourage mindfulness and presence in real-world interactions.
Weekly Community Time: Prioritize spending quality time with family or friends to build strong, supportive relationships.
Sabbath Rest: Dedicate one day a week to rest and rejuvenation, free from work and electronic distractions.
Physical Activity: Run, walk, or play at least four hours each week to experience a healthier body and a healthier mind.
Shared Meals: Engage in communal meals that emphasize connection and conversation, strengthening bonds over food.With expanded content and study guide questions, this book sparks individual reflection and group discussions, making it perfect for personal growth or community learning. The Common Rule Youth Edition offers a roadmap to a balanced and meaningful life. Get a copy for the youth in your life today!
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.
The Common Rule Youth Edition 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.
The Common Rule Youth Edition: Growing Your Faith in a Distracted World is a helpful book for Christian teens. This book equips 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.