After 25 years in the entertainment industry, Kel Mitchell is ready to share his story. But not quite the way you’d imagine.
With a hugely recognizable face due to his long career as a child star, it’s the natural assumption that he would choose to pen a memoir when writing his first book. But the veteran actor and host instead saw moving into the role of author as an opportunity to spread the message of the devotional and meditative practices that have helped him face adversity and succeed over the years.
In his first book, Blessed Mode, Mitchell shares inspirational stories from his own life, told through a lens of healing through faith, paired with devotionals for the reader’s personal use.
“A lot of people, they were like, ‘Yo, Kel, you’ve got such a deep story. It would be really cool if you did a memoir.’ But I wanted to do a devotional because the devotionals have been a big part of and a big help to my life as I was navigating and adulting through life with God,” he said. “I thought, ‘you know what? I want to do the same thing for other people.’ Let them know they’re beautifully and wonderfully made, that God loves them, and share my stories in little short devotionals on each page for each day for them. And it’ll just be a kickstart for their day and for their faith.”
For Mitchell, taking time each morning to center himself with his God and his faith prepares him to take on whatever the day may throw his way.
“I get up at 4:00 AM, and I allow my mind to wake up. After that, I actually get into prayer. I meditate. I take whatever stress or anxiety that I know is about to come up or that I don’t know is going to come up. Only the Lord knows, so I talk to him about it.”
Blessed Mode sees Mitchell sharing his techniques, prayer prompts, and short inspirational stories from his own life and experiences to help others find the peace and preparation he has over the years. Having grown up in the church – his grandfather was a pastor and his parents were strict church-goers – he’s been equipped with faith from an early age. But approaching God personally was something he had to discover on his own.
“I’ve seen prayer work. I’ve seen people using their faith. I knew God,” he explained. “I know God. But then, there’s a difference between knowing and actually having a relationship with God.”
This is a mission he lives outside of his writing as well. On top of his jobs hosting MTV’s Deliciousness, and CBS Saturdays’ Tails of Valor and Friends Furever, Mitchell youth pastor in his free time. He also takes time to mentor and guide his younger co-stars on projects like the upcoming All That reboot, providing an open ear and honest perspective he often could not find from the adults he worked with as a young television star.
“It was very important to me to tell the cast members, the youth on the show, ‘I want you to know that this is not a thing that makes you special. You were made special when you were in the womb’,” Mitchell said. “‘So there’s going to be other things that you’re going to be doing. This job is not the one thing that makes you special. You are already made special. God loves you.’”
He believes this message is good for not only teens and young adults under the pressures of a big job in the spotlight, but young people from all walks of life in modern society.
“Even outside of entertainment, youth are dealing with a lot. You know what I mean? They’re dealing with bullying, they’re dealing with cyber-bullying, they’re dealing with things in their environment.”
“What’s important to me is the ability to find the joy within the turmoil, find the Christ within the crisis, find that love through it all.”