Keri Wyatt Kent

Using a coffee shop as a remote office or meeting room is, I believe, a great strategy for leaders.

It is so easy to say: just trust.Do not be anxious. Doing it is another matter altogether. How do you cultivate trust? How do you release anxiety?

Sabbath should be a day when our structures are released and simple joys celebrated.

What might you need to say no to this holiday season, so that you can be more fully present with God?

When you’re too busy to rest, rest is exactly what you need.

What do you do when you or those you lead become spiritually bored?

What do you need to release in order to be ready for your next step as a leader?

How might our ministries be transformed if we allowed God, through his Word, to fill us, change us?

Which kid in your children’s or youth ministry could become more than he or she is right now?

Trust is a spiritual practice that transforms us, that helps us obey the command against worrying.

Hunger makes you weak, but purposely going hungry is a powerful experience.

Let’s not get so busy with ministry that we neglect our need to feed our souls with Scripture.

We who lead children have a front row seat to unedited, uninhibited worship. And if we’re brave, we’ll learn to worship in that same way.

When we give generously, we wade into the abundant flow of God’s grace.

Many of us lead children and give them memory verses to learn. But do we practice what we preach?

Jesus never called us to do service projects, he asked us to become servants.

When you say no to things that are not priorities, you can create space in your life to say yes to the things that matter.

What will make this a successful ministry year? Let’s see what the apostle Paul has to say.

We cannot simply work for God while he watches from the sidelines.

Gratitude leads to joy and joy leads quite naturally to genuine acts of generosity.

Play can restore our souls from the damage done by our accomplishment-driven, workaholic culture.

When we give generously, we get a glimpse of the abundance of God.

Those who desire to make a difference in children’s lives would be wise to look to the example of a young queen named Esther.

God commands us to celebrate&—even when times are tough

Sometimes taking a break is the most spiritual thing you can do

Creating the right conditions to make you grow

In these tough times it’s crucial to foster gratitude in our lives.

3 practices to breathe life into your conversations with God.

Children’s ministry is serious business—that’s why we need to play.

In ministry it’s easy to forget our own development while we attend to the needs others.

Something shifted tremendously in how people followed God after Jesus walked our planet.

One of my favorite indulgences, which I treat myself to a few times a year, is Real Simple magazine. I find it somewhat ironic that a magazine about simplicity has slick ads for so much stuff, but it’s still a fun magazine to read.

There is no doubt—we live in troubled times. It may feel hard to concentrate on your spiritual life when you face financial challenges, when the world seems to be in turmoil.

To paraphrase Rick Warren: Your ministry is not about you.

The beginning of the school year marks, at many churches, the beginning of a new season of ministry. Children get “promoted” to the next grade level—which in the church I grew up in, was a big deal.

Summer is never endless when you’re an adult. It seems like you blink and it’s gone.

One of my favorite spiritual practices is one you don’t hear much about: the practice of play.

A furious line of thunderstorms pounded our area this week. Windows left open meant the carpet was as soaked as the lawn.

When we look at Jesus, we remember his love for us.

Making the days count—how do you do that?

What weighs you down, bends you over, keeps you small? Is it the weight of other people’s expectations? Or the burden of trying to make other people happy?

I wonder what the crowd expected to hear from Jesus.

Childlike faith and trust is necessary if we are to enter the kingdom.

Do you want to get well?

A new series of For Your Soul columns, based on Keri Wyatt Kent’s devotional book Oxygen: Deep Breathing for the Soul.

A friend and I recently taught a workshop at a weekend women’s retreat. The topic? Journaling. What’s your gut response to the mention of the practice of journaling?

This month, let’s consider the spiritual practice of prayer. Prayer not as ritual but as a means to relationship; as conversation initiated by the Holy Spirit, in which our primary role is to listen.

Last night, I awakened several times to rain pounding on the roof. Early this morning, unable to sleep, I went to the basement to check on things.

Last month, many readers responded to my column on Sabbath. Many of the comments and questions were focused on rules: which day of the week should it be? What should be prohibited?

In our ongoing series that focuses on spiritual practices, we’ll take an extended look at just one practice: Sabbath keeping.

Parenting, it’s been said, is the only profession where the goal is to work yourself out of a job.

On my desk, I have a cut-glass vase housing bright yellow daffodils and two small but pungent purple hyacinths.

The horizon—the color of ashes—promises a storm. The muddled snow, which had been melting, is arrested by the returning cold.

I am writing this in a quiet place, where I have come, to get some rest.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; those who seek find; and to those who knock, the door will be opened.

If silence is “weird,” why do we want to engage in it at all, much less make time for it as a spiritual practice?

Little Josh wanders the three-year-old room at Promiseland, stopping first at the art station to color a picture of Jesus, which he embellishes with a few lines and circles meant to be Thomas the train.

The quote here reminds us that we really do matter, and being our best gives glory to God.

When you hear the phrase “spiritual practice,” or “spiritual discipline,” what comes to mind?

When you work with children, interruptions are inevitable.

I was cleaning up the living room, picking up newspapers and throwing toys into the toy box, muttering about how many pairs of shoes were on the floor instead of in the closet.

What happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity.

As a leader, what are you doing to feed your soul?

Spring brings a change of wardrobe, typically. Lighter, shorter, brighter.

A moment with a child can remind us of what really matters.

I’ve noticed that different people interpret what that means in different ways.

Your effectiveness as a leader depends a lot on what you do when no one is looking—the private spiritual disciplines you engage in to grow closer to Jesus.