During a tour break, Tasha spent a summer doing mission work in Kenya and South Africa. The trip proved life-changing. “When I returned to Los Angeles, I just felt this chasm between the disparity of these African communities I was working in and the self-absorbed, materialistic perspective of Hollywood,” she shares.

After more than four years on tour with Perry, deep down, Tasha sensed it was time to move on. “I had known for many years that God had a call on my life,” she says, “and I also sensed the season I had been in wasn’t a detour, but part of His plan. I knew it was time for a new chapter—whatever that might be.”

After spending time at home with her family in South Carolina, Tasha decided it was finally time to make music all her own so she headed to Music City. “Like a lot of artists, I wanted to know I had something to offer in a city so concentrated with gifted people. I was nervous but I felt a new confidence to say, ‘God truly loves me, and I can step out and do whatever He’s called me to do because it’s not about comparison,’” she offers. “Comparison crushes creativity.”

In Nashville, she found a new role for her music and her calling. She taught classes at the National Praise and Worship Institute at Trevecca University and began co-writing with some of Nashville’s finest. Perhaps most importantly, she met and married GRAMMY® and GMA Dove Award®-winning musician and producer, Keith Everette Smith.

In the studio, the pair dove into the production of her debut EP, but it was at home where their greatest collaboration came about. Keith and Tasha both knew that Keith would struggle to have kids, as doctors said his infertility was most likely due to a back injury earlier in his life. For the first few years of their marriage, their dreams of being parents didn’t seem within reach. During a mission trip to Africa where they were both leading worship, Keith’s back was in fits. As he tried to find a position that would lessen the pain, he kneeled to the ground and prayed. Miraculously, his back pain was gone and it has never returned. Just a few weeks after their trip, they discovered that Tasha was pregnant and are now the proud parents of a healthy little boy.

Tasha is busy preparing to debut her solo music as well as her first book, both of which are the fruits of every struggle, tear and victory along the way. “What I’m trying to communicate is the truth that I’ve learned along the way—that there is power and life in listening to the Holy Spirit and accepting that you can trust Him because He’s good,” Tasha reflects. “Even in the darkest place, He’s still there.”

Looking back, Tasha is grateful for the people she’s met, the places she’s experienced and the lessons she’s learned. “If I have any regrets, it was caring too much about what people thought of me, wanting to please everybody and being afraid— afraid of failure, afraid of success, afraid of my own humanity,” she candidly shares. “Being a Christian, I am supposed to be a light, and being a light means being my true self. I hope that by sharing my testimony, others who also feel afraid would begin to step out in courage with boldness.”

As a singer, songwriter and speaker, Tasha longs to use her God-given talents to serve and encourage others. “My whole creative journey, I’ve felt so bound from fear…but God says to Joshua, ‘Be bold and courageous, because I’ll never leave you, I’ll never forsake you,’” she says. “And I believe what He wants to say to others through my story is to be bold and courageous’—because He’s going to meet you there.”

www.TashaLayton.com

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