Habits of the Household: Practicing the Story of God in Everyday Family Rhythms is by Justin Whitmel Earley. Zondervan published it in November 2021. It runs 240 pages and has sold more than 250,000 copies.
A correction is owed here. An earlier version of this review described this as a fitness and physical health book. It is not. It is a book about the ordinary routines of family life at home. Nothing in it is about exercise. If you found this page looking for a fitness title, this is not one.
How the book is built
The chapters follow the shape of a single day, from waking up through to bedtime. Along the way Earley takes each recurring moment in a household one at a time: waking, mealtimes, discipline, screentime, family devotions, marriage and the time parents need alone, work and play, conversation, and bedtime.
Every chapter closes with something you can actually use: a pattern, a short prayer, or a liturgy for your family to say together. That is the practical payload, and it is why the book gets used rather than just read.
The argument
Earley’s premise is that we become what we do without thinking about it. Character forms through repetition, not through intention, so the habits already running in your house are already shaping your kids whether you chose them or not. His conclusion is not to add more religious activity on top of a chaotic week, but to take the moments that already happen every single day and put something better inside them.
That framing is the strength of the book. Bedtime already happens. Dinner already happens. Earley is asking what your family practices during those moments, which is a much smaller and more achievable question than asking how to overhaul your schedule.
Readability
Earley writes warmly and he writes about his own failures at length, which keeps it from feeling like instruction from someone who has it together. Chapters are short. You can read one and try it that evening. Reading it straight through is possible but works against the point.
Who it suits
Best for parents of kids still at home, especially with young children, since several rhythms assume you control bedtime. Useful for a couple to read together, because a good number of the habits need both parents to agree. Less useful if your kids are grown, and it will frustrate you if you want a rigid system, since Earley keeps insisting these are patterns to adapt rather than rules to follow.
Bottom line
One of the better books on family discipleship of the last several years, and deservedly popular. Read a chapter, try the practice at the end of it, then move on. That is how it is meant to work.
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