Trusting God in the Process with Guest: Tasha Layton (Recording Artist)

Foreign.

Hello, everybody. It's Ron and Hope Unfiltered. But where is Ron Carpenter? It's just Hope Carpenter today. Don't leave, because I know I'm your favorite. Of course I'm your favorite. One time, Ron was doing the podcast by himself, and a couple of our staff members said, I didn't even want to watch that one. It wasn't fun. He just preached the whole time. So mine's going to be fun today, and it's so interesting to me. I'm going to share somebody, one, a special friend of mine with you today. But it's so interesting being in ministry for so long. And, you know, I'm 53 years old. Can you believe that? And we've been in ministry 32 years, and all of the amazing, talented, interesting people who have come through Redemption, just major music industry people, Billboard artists, just amazing. It blows my mind at the talent that we've met and we got to steward, got to pastor, and we've got one of those artists here today. But here's a fun fact many of you may not know is that one of my degrees is in music. Music. And I sang for years and years and years and years on the praise team. I would sing and then get off the stage and run and go teach children's church or sing, get off the stage, go do the nursery. For years in ministry, you just do whatever it takes. But singing has always been my heart. It's been my passion. And I remember my parents telling me my first solo was when I was 2 years old in our little Southern Baptist church. She said our preacher stood up and said, we're about to have a choir special. Does anybody. This is the old days, y', all, when they say y' all come sing. So does anybody wanna come sing? My mom said I jumped out of her arms and she couldn't catch me. And I ran up to the stage at two years old and he held me in his arms and I sang with the choir. So, fun fact, fun fact. We're gonna give you some fun facts as we go about our life. But today, a special friend. Been friends with this young lady for many years, had the pleasure of watching her in her youth, saw her date a few people, grow up in the church. She used her gift at Redemption, and now she's married, got kids, and blowing it up. I'm telling you, she's blowing it up. I want you to welcome Tasha Layton.

Hello. It's so good to see you.

Oh, I know it. You too, girl. I'm so proud of you.

Thank you. Thank you. I was thinking about, you know, how long I've known you guys, and I think when I was in Greenville, I mean, Chandler, when I babysat them, she wasn't even two. She was just climbing on the table. Right.

22 years old.

I know. And now they're having kids and that makes me feel really old.

Good. Because it makes me feel older. Especially when I have them at my house for extended periods of time. It makes me feel very, very old. I know why God gives us kids when we're young.

Yes, yes.

And you have two. Right?

I've had kids a little later in life. And, man, having kids in your mid to late 30s is not the same as your mid to late twent, that's for sure. I'm tired. My oldest will be five at the end of the month, and that essentially means I haven't slept in six years.

Well, here's the good news. You won't be sleeping for a very long time.

No, I'm mentally prepared for that, for sure.

And then touring and doing everything that you're doing. You had kids and then your life just blew up.

Yeah.

You were just so busy.

The timing of everything has been a little crazy. I'm hanging on for dear life on a roller coaster that God has me on. But you know what? He keeps making a way. And so as long as he makes a way for us to be healthy as a family and continue to do ministry the way we're doing it, we'll continue. My husband plays for Toby Mack and he's been with him almost eight years. And so him touring and me touring and with two littles. And I like to describe it as our calendar looks like a 3,000 piece puzzle where all the pieces look the same. And your challenge is to put the puzzle together. But stay sane. What do you say?

And stay sane.

Yes, yes. And, you know, I think I've realized that, you know, as the years have gone by and things have increased and, you know, your responsibilities increase when the ministry grows, I think you learn that you're never going to keep all the balls in the air, that some ball is getting dropped at every moment. You just have to make sure the most important ones stay in the air. And I think as long as my family and my kids are good, everything else, it comes and goes. You know what I mean? You can't be a perfectionist in anything that you're doing in life. That's not a good life.

Do not have to be washed every night.

No, no. And mine rarely are. My house is a wreck usually. It's so funny, you know, things that I used to care so much about, they're just so irrelevant now. And I think as God gives you a mantle and a calling and you get a focus and you start to zero in on that, the things that you want to maintain control over, really, you have to let those things go. And, you know, your life is not your own. And so waking up every day and saying, holy Spirit, guide me today. And what I'm supposed to get accomplished today, because I think I love making lists and seeing those things crossed off, but I can never let that take the place of listening to the Holy Spirit and doing what Jesus says.

It's true, you know, the older I've gotten, the busier we are. Simplicity is so attractive. Yes, it's so attractive. You know, you start off in life and you think, all these things I want, all these things I want to achieve, all these places I want to go. You know, I want to be able to do xyz, element of P. All these things. And you get older and you just start realizing the things that are so important are about. You could put on one hand and.

You don't want to be on your deathbed thinking, oh, I'm so glad I accomplished that, or I fit in another conference call. You're not going to be thinking that. You're going to be, you know, concerned with what really matters and that your.

Kids are happy and healthy and serving Jesus and that you actually love your husband.

Yeah, what a concept.

And let's talk about this song. Tasha, Tasha, what have you done?

So you know, what you done? I know you don't know how many radio people in interviews, they'll just start singing it. And they keep going, you know, And I'm like, go ahead, guys. But the song has really been an anthem for so many people. And I think sometimes when you write a song that's so personal, it ends up being the most universal and the so many more people connect with it when it comes from your heart. And so my favorite line in the song is, I thought I was too broken, but now I see you were just breaking new ground inside of me. And I think all the years that I pounded the steering wheel and cried in my car or asked God, are things ever going to change? And I'm not talking about external changes, I'm talking about internal things. Am I ever going to feel free? Am I ever going to feel peace? Am I ever going to feel joy in the things that the gospel actually offers? I knew it in my Head. But I didn't feel it actualized in my heart or in my life. And so I think looking back at what God has done in my life, I am so, so grateful. And that song has become an anthem for so many who have been locked up with the power of shame and things that they've done in life that they feel shame over. Or, you know, it's taking that finger of shame that the enemy points at you or that someone else points at you or that you point at you and turning it around and saying, no, it's not about what I have done or not done. It's about what you've done for me on the cross. Let's get the focus right, get our eyes off ourself.

Yes, absolutely. And that's my anthem. That is my story. So that's why I love the song so much. You know, I wrote the book and it came out last year. The Most Beautiful Disaster. How God.

I love the title of that.

Yes. You know, how God makes miracles out of our mistakes. And it's so true in church. And I think the church has done a terrible job at shaming instead of taking the wounded, rescuing them, nursing them, loving them, like Jesus wants us to love people, and then pushing them into purpose, using that so it can be a testimony. And so this song is right up my alley. It is just everything I'm about, everything I preach, everything I believe that I do believe, that God uses every single thing. The good, the bad, the ugly, the hurt, the devastating. Nothing's wasted in God.

Yeah, he doesn't waste anything. I love how in Ecclesiastes it says, you've made all things beautiful in its time. And, you know, the things that I thought were detours, the things that I thought were messes that he couldn't make beautiful, those ended up being all part of his plan. And when I look back at it now, I think, gosh, every single little detail that I thought was useless or frustrating or a detour he was using. And I use some of that stuff even now. I think back about, you know, when I lived in California, I worked at a little church as a worship pastor. But then the church was so small. You know, church salary sometimes can be really. Especially in California, where it's a cost of living is so much. I had to supplement my income. And so I worked as a personal assistant to a couple. And there were so many things that I learned at that job that I use now in the ministry regarding business and organization. When I moved to Nashville, I didn't have a job I just came on faith in a prayer and one suitcase. And so I worked at a marketing company, and I use every bit of that now with my merchandise as an artist. Like the things that I was so frustrated by earlier in life, I'm seeing the use of them now and how God had a way made for me even before I knew that he did. So I love that about him.

Life is just like school. It really is. And you don't get to the next level until you graduate. You don't get to third grade until you've conquered all the skills in second grade.

You'll decide to keep repeating it.

Yes, absolutely. And that's why people get stuck in cycles, is because they do not put into practice and embrace the lessons that God's trying to teach us in this time, in this season, in our life. Because we don't like winter. We wanna live in spring and summer all the time. But there's always something to learn in every season. If we will take that season, embrace, say, okay, God, I'm not the master of my life. You are. Teach me what you need to teach me so I can graduate to get to the next level. To the next level. And, you know, so many young people, Tasha, these days, especially, you know, millennials, get a bad rap. So I don't even. I don't. I hate saying that word, but I think we've just digressed over time into, you know, everything's become easier. It's a quick fix generation. We've spoiled our kids too much, we've given too much, and we're addicted to the quick fix. Nobody wants to work for it. And you had to work for this. Are you 40 yet?

I'll be 40 in October. And, you know, people see things going well in my life, and they don't know that most of my life has been really hard and that I spent seven years in a library alone, studying the word of God. Nobody saw that. Nobody saw what I sowed. And I love that you mentioned winter, because in the winter season, everything on the surface is dead. Everything looks like there's no life to it whatsoever. But winter is the most important season because all the nutrients are returning to the ground. And I think a lot of people don't. When you said we don't want to do the work and learn the lesson, I think it's because it's so hard emotionally, it is so hard to dig those roots up of the lies in our lives that we believe. And sometimes it's so subconscious, we don't even know it's there. And so it takes a little digging deeper to do that. And when you're in that process, it's not fun. Sometimes it feels like it's never going to get better or it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. And so I think there were months and months of my life. I took a sabbatical in between living in California and moving to Nashville. And when I did, first of all, I think it's hilarious because I'm such a type A achiever that I thought, I'm going to do this sabbatical better than anybody else.

Sabbatical.

So I got all these books on sabbatical, and I set a regimen and a schedule for myself every day. And within three weeks, I was so exhausted, and I was like, I don't think I'm really understanding the concept of Sabbath right now.

Right.

What I love about Sabbath in the Old Testament is that when the Israelites took Sabbath, when they observed Sabbath, it was to stop and remember who God was. And thus they remembered who they were. Because when you get so busy, it's like you. You start forgetting things. You forget that your keys are in the fridge, you're in line at Target looking for your sunglasses in the cart, and they're on your head. You know, it's just random stuff when you get so busy. But when you are still and know that he is God, when you take that space to rest and Sabbath, you start to remember. And sometimes it's hard because then you start feeling again because you make space to feel. But you remember who God is, and you remember who you are. And that he split that red sea, that he was man in the desert of cloud by day and a fire by night. That's when they remembered who he was. And I think sometimes we lose our identity because we get so busy and we don't want to take that space. And it's in that space that the hard things come up. It's in that space. That's why we stay busy sometimes, because we want to avoid our emotions. We want to avoid what's really going on. We're lying to them.

We don't want to look at it so much.

And so I love that about Sabbath. They took space to remember who God was, and then because of that, they remembered who they were, that they were made in his image and that they had nothing to fear because he was on their side.

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So, Tasha, you've been through a lot of seasons. We're talking about seasons and where you are now. You know, 39 years old, small children, still got littles, but God's blowing your life up. And so it did not happen overnight. It's been a huge process for you. I remember you did American Idol and then you did. Then you started touring with Katie, right, Katy Perry. So talk to us about that. How did that happen? What was that season like?

You know, I had always felt called to ministry and when I auditioned for Idol, I was just going to hang out with friends and then I ended up, you have to audition to be able to even hang out in the line.

And so.

And so I said I would never do a show like that because I was like, no one takes them seriously, you know, the whole thing. And so when I did the show and made it, I was like, oh, well, Something about this feels really natural. And so when I got cut from the show, same season as Tori Kelly and Lauren Daigle, we all met in Hollywood Week and I went back to my pastor and I said, you know, I really believe that maybe I'm supposed to be doing some music outside of the church. And he said, oh, Tasha, we've known that for years. We've just been waiting for you to figure it out. And I was like, oh, well, thanks for letting me know. But I started praying to that end and I started praying, God, if you want me to do something outside of the church, you're going to have to make it really clear. Because I have always felt called to full time ministry. And so randomly, I got a call to audition for the Kesha Rihanna tour. I made the tour. We were leaving for Japan on a Friday and had rehearsal that Wednesday before I woke up and I heard the Holy Spirit say, don't do it. And I was like, oh my gosh. I wasn't sure what to make of it. I called my pastor and he said, you're self sabotaging. Just take the job. But I had gone against that voice of the Holy Spirit enough in my life to know not to do it. And so I called him and I said, I'm so sorry, I'm going to have to decline. And they said they were so gracious about it. I called him at 11. We were supposed to start rehearsal at 2pm and so at 2pm I got a call from Katie's manager, Can you be here in 20 minutes? And so if I had taken that job, I never would have gotten a job with Katie. It was such a better fit, it was a better vibe all around and it was totally the Lord's plan for me. But I actually needed to be prepared for that audition because if I had not auditioned for the Keshe Rihanna tour, I didn't even know how an audition went because I'd never done anything like that. And so sometimes we don't understand the no that God says because we're like, why would you ask me to do this if then you're going to say no? Well, his ways are higher and his thoughts are higher. So we don't always have to understand. We just have to go along with what he's saying. And so I went along with what he's saying. And in hindsight, I saw that he had a perfect plan. But in the middle of that, it was really frustrating. All of the unknowns and the lack of control I had over anything but the job with Katie was incredible. I mean, I toured the world on someone else's dime without the responsibility of being the artist. And I also was able to cross off most things off my bucket list. And so it was really awesome. It was a wild ride of life that most people don't get to experience, of private planes and nice hotels and all that. But there's a reason Paul says you can gain the whole world and lose your soul because none of that stuff fulfills you. And so at the end of four years, I had been in Africa on a missions trip and met up with the tour in Malaysia. And when I landed in Malaysia, I thought, I'm done. I miss leading worship. I miss singing songs that directly connect people to God. And so that's when I left Katy and started kind of searching. Because I was like, I do feel like I'm supposed to do music, but I also feel an insecurity in me about it that I don't know how to process. I did not feel free and I didn't feel the confidence to do it. And I wasn't sure how to handle that because grown up in the church, studied psychology, been a therapy, read self help books, and nothing was changing. And so I thought something is missing. And I don't know how to get through this on my own. And so I took a sabbatical. I went somewhere in Colorado that was beautiful. It was life changing. And I learned how to hear truth from God straight from his mouth. And I felt it move from my head to my heart in some healing prayer activities. I wrote a book about it called Boundless, because when I left there, I thought, everyone needs to experience this kind of healing. And so sorry I've gone on and on, but give me a microphone. I'm just going to keep talking anyway. I've experienced tremendous healing. I'm so thankful and grateful for everything God has done. And every step of the way, through Idol, through Katie, even my time with Katie, it's all been preparing me for what God had now entered into Christian music. I didn't have any roadblocks. I didn't have any distractions because I'd already played the coolest stages in the world. I'd already toured, I'd already done the cool stuff. So then I only focus on the ministry without distractions. It was amazing. I never could have planned that out on my own.

So when did you meet your husband in the journey?

So I met him shortly after I moved to Nashville. And when we met, I thought I posted on Facebook, you know, does anybody have any work Because I just moved to Nashville and I don't have a job yet. He is a producer in town and so he said, I have some work for you. And the joke is he would have invented the work. He would have made it up just to work with me. But anyway.

Did he know you?

He knew who I was because he had approached a vocal contractor in LA to do some vocals for a project and he said, I need a Katy Perry type vibe. And our mutual friend said, oh, I know her background singer. Let me introduce you. And so he knew who I was, but we had never met. And then our session turned into a three and a half hour first date and we were engaged a year later. And so.

Oh, my. Love at first sight, huh?

Yeah, I, you know, I had a still, that still small voice before I met him that you're going to meet your husband. And it was weird because it, it wasn't like a bomb dropping on me. It wasn't a super, you know, fireworks everywhere. It was like, cool as a cucumber. You're going to meet your husband and that's a lot of peace. And I think, you know, I got married at 32, and that's a little later for some of us who have grown up in the south, you know, and when I look at. I would not be the wife and mom I am today if I had not had that season of waiting and learning to trust God and learning to listen to him for my life and learning to live fully without a husband. Because I think sometimes we put our lives on hold for our partner or for whomever we think we need to continue God's work in our lives. And I didn't want to do that. I reached a point of frustration where I said, you know what, God? Not my will, but yours be done. And I thought, I'm not going to wait for someone else. I'm not going to let anything hold me back. I'm just going to walk straight into what you have for me. And I stopped planning out my life and I just started living by the Holy Spirit's direction every day. And, man, life started to blossom when I let go and let God.

And, you know, I think those of us from the south who do get married very early, you know, there's pros and cons to, to all of that waiting, not. Not waiting, getting married, whatever. But I do believe that especially those of us who have been raised in traditional, very strict religious church backgrounds, and then we go launch right into marriage. We miss a season of figuring out life and figuring out who God really is to me, you know, not who I'm told he is. Not what I have to do or what I shouldn't do or what this denomination I can't do, you know, to go to heaven or, you know, you stump your toe and cuss, you're going to hell on a slip and slide, you got to start all the way back over. And, you know, it's just all these rules and religion, and then we're thrust into marriage having no identity for ourselves, and it ends up in a heap of trouble. And so I just say, I think you have got to do and live the best life. You got to experience so many things. You got to experience so many seasons and dry seasons and tough seasons, and you and God got through it. And it does make you more stable. It does make you stronger. You just spread out this way so much further and deeper and wider to where you can launch into adulthood. Marriage, children, with a lot of lessons under your belt.

Yeah. And I think knowing, too, that, you know, I don't get my worth from my husband. I don't get my affirmation from him. I am. I am okay just being me. And I think that's such a hard lesson for most of us to learn. I love that you reference growing up in the church because that really is a. It's. It's the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law. And the Old Testament is all about external obedience. And when Jesus comes on the scene, he says, it's not a circumcision of the flesh, it's a circumcision of the heart. Yeah. And it's like the law says, you say if you commit adultery, I say if you even look at a woman, you know, And I think he took matters deeper, and he very much wanted people to consider their hearts and not just their external obedience. And I think when you grow up in the church, you learn the do's and don'ts. You cross every T, you dot every I. I mean, I grew up. I had a lie from childhood that the enemy tried to get to take root in me, was that I have to prove that I'm a good Christian. And when that lie took root, I didn't even realize it. Number one, subconscious. But over time, he used different things, different avenues, different people, different word curses over my life to try to water and fertilize that seed that he had planted. And so it wasn't until I plucked that out that I realized what a hold that had over my life that I'm trying to prove that I'm good. I'm trying to prove to everyone that I'm a good Christian, even to myself. And while that did produce some good discipline in my life, I did memorize a lot of scripture during that season. And I didn't do anything bad growing up. I didn't have sex, I didn't go drinking, I didn't do all that stuff. It wasn't doing anything for the condition of my heart. In fact, I was hiding. I was building a wall around myself to keep people from rejecting me. And I think it wasn't until I was 30 years old on the therapist couch in Colorado, realizing I have lived my whole life in self protection and that hasn't done anything for my joy, my peace. Any fruit of the spirit that God wants to outpour from my life is not outpouring because I've built up this wall. And once I took care of the spirit of pride in my life, the spirit of judgment over myself, and then it extended to other people, that's when the Lord could really do a deep work in my heart to dig up those roots and get me free. But otherwise you're kind of stuck. You wall yourself in when you do that. And man, that spirit of religion, it doesn't do good for any of us.

It'll kill you. It'll kill you. It killed Jesus. Religion is what put Jesus on the cross. And that growing up like that just boxes you in, in so much fear. You're just so afraid every day that I'm gonna do something wrong and I'm gonna go to hell. And it all with works. And God's unconditional love says, I love you regardless of what you do. I loved you when you were a dirty rotten scoundrel. I gave it all because that's what unconditional love is. It's not what you do, it's just who you are. And when I got that revelation when I was 44. You got yours at 30. Mine took a long time. Religion had me boxed in for so long. I was on that performance treadmill of trying to be good enough for the church people, good enough for my preacher husband, good enough for my parents, and in inside dying.

Yeah.

And then one day I just felt just smack dab in the lap of the love of God. And I had never known it, had never felt it. I'd preached about it, I'd heard about it, but never experienced it in its life.

I love that so much. I love that. I think when you experience love like that, you start to treat other people differently too, because you realize your value to God and how much he loves you, and then you realize how much he loves other people. In that spirit of judgment, or where you want to be the judge, the prosecutor, the jury, you want to, you know, think about what's right and wrong. You want to stand in that seat of judgment that only the Lord can be in. It's like when you step out of that place in your own life, you step out of it with other people, too. And then all of a sudden, you're smiling at strangers, and you just want.

To give your life to rescuing people, showing them the love of Jesus and saying he loves you right where you are. You don't have to change anything. You don't have to do anything different. You're just good enough right where you are.

Yeah, it changes everything. It's just like being a parent. And, you know, everyone says you understand the love of God more once you have kids, and that really is true because you would do anything for them. They don't have to do anything in return when they're that little baby. I. You know, we have two miracle babies. I don't know if you knew that, but we're so grateful for our kids. But I remember when I was taking Levi to Target by myself for the first time after having him. You know, that first outing for a mom is so, you know, you're stressed out. You're, you know, has so much anxiety. And I put him in the car, and a bee flew in the car. And I am, like, so afraid of getting stung by bees. I'm not allergic, but I just don't like them. And I literally Mr. Miyagi that thing because I was like. I caught it with my hand because I was like, I will not let anything hurt this child. And immediately. And it could have been postpartum, it could have been all the hormones, but I immediately started to weep in the car because I had this revelation of how God felt about me, that he would, if he could, he would protect me from anything, and because he loved me so much. And I just. I think when you have kids, it's like a whole nother level of understanding God's love.

It's so true. It's so true. Let me ask you right now. We've talked about how you got here. What are you doing now? You're on this roller coaster ride. Are you on tour? Are you home? What are you doing? What's Tasha Layton doing now? Are you writing what's going on?

Yes. So. Well, I'm writing a lot right now because we are filming an on demand television show at the end of the month for the book that I wrote that came out last year called Boundless. So we're filming the TV show, and then I'm coming out with another book in March, so that manuscript is due September 1st, so I feel a little crazy right now.

And.

And then we're also writing for the new album, so that's really exciting. On the writing front, on the touring front, fall will be Danny Gokey and Jordan Feliz, and so that would be really fun. I know. He's awesome and so is Jordan. Oh, my gosh, they're, like, the sweetest, and their families are amazing. And so fall will be them and then Caleb Christmas tour, and then in the spring hits deep with Toby Mack. And so what's cool about that is Keith plays for Toby, so we'll all be together. So I am bringing the kids, and so it's exhausting when the kids come, but I also don't have any mom guilt for leaving them at home or not being together as a family. And so we are doing it as a family no matter what it costs. And so. So I'm really excited. Oh, and I have a Christmas record coming out that we're doing a vinyl for, so if you like vinyl records. Yes.

I love Christmas music. Christmas, too.

I love Christmas so much. You know, I love Christmas music. And my husband, really, I call him. He's just like the Santa Claus of Christian music because he's just such a good producer of Christmas songs. And so he produced the whole thing. And we have a full big band and a full orchestra and gorgeous. It's really cool. I think if you didn't put my voice on it at all, it. It deserves a Grammy because the tracks are so, so beautiful. But.

Wow, I cannot wait to do that.

There's a lot going on for sure.

When does that come out? When's your Christmas album?

I think probably October.

Okay.

There's only. Because the vinyl companies, you know, there were only two vinyl companies, and one burned down, apparently, and then Taylor Swift monopolized the other one. And so you have to have a lot of lead time with vinyl, and it's kind of really in demand. So we'll have a small, small batch, I think, come out in October and then hopefully more in December.

So. Well, wherever you are on tour, if you're in Greenville, South Carolina, or if you're in San Jose, California area, you better get me a good ticket so I can come hang out with you.

You should definitely come. I think we're definitely going to be in South Carolina for the Danny tour. I think we're going to be in Aiken, Myrtle beach, like, all. All of that area for a few nights in a row, so that'll be awesome.

Well, I'm speaking in a conference in November called grow your business for God in Nashville.

And so where is it at?

What. What's being held at the. It's being held at the belonging company, so. Oh, yeah.

Oh, that's awesome. So we have a friend belonging if you're there.

We.

I mean, gosh, half our friends go to church of the city and half our friends go to the belongings. So, yeah, really good people.

I can't wait to be there. And I'll be there on that Sunday too. Just enjoy. So that's rare for me.

Yeah.

So I'm so excited, Tasha. This has been so good just to catch up with you and just hear your heart and see what God's doing. You have some amazing, amazing songs. Of course, everybody knows. Look what you've done. That just blew up last year. But how far? I love how far. And it's just such an amazing song. And then into the sea.

Yeah. I feel like every song is a gift from the father's heart, but some are really close. And I felt like when into the sea came out, there was such an outpouring of letters and people responding to that song. You know, this song is helping me deal with the death of my wife after 50 years. This song has helped me deal with the death of my 5 year old daughter or the murder of my son, or I was gonna take my life because I was trafficked and I heard the song on the radio, I pulled my car over and I called my aunt. It's just like I can literally sit here for an hour and a half and just tell you story after story of how God has used that song. And so it's interesting. I don't think I expected the response that it received, but the timing of it coming out during the pandemic and it was so timely. The Lord knew when it needed to come out. But funny story about that song is that when we wrote it, I recorded the demo 30 seconds after we wrote it. Just. So you're just laying down a vocal. And I was pregnant with Lila at the time and I went back to record my final vocal and I was too pregnant to sing. So the vocal you hear on the radio is from 30 seconds after we wrote it because I literally.

Wow.

I couldn't breathe. I was so pregnant.

Yeah. Wow.

Yeah.

It's kind of hard to breathe when you're nine months pregnant.

You know, because it puts a little pressure, and then you reach a point where you can't even walk upstairs, and you're like, okay, I'm ready for this baby to get out. And that's where I was. So interesting. Fun fact about that song.

Well, Tasha, thank you for your time. I know you're busy, and we are so grateful. I know the world loves you. The Christian community loves your music, and you are such a treasured. I could just cry thinking about just your heart, your spirit, your rare gift. We know a lot of people in and out of the music industry, and even though it says Christian, it's not always Christian. And you are. And you're holding true to your love for Jesus and what he's done in your life, and you're giving it right back to us, and we thank you for that.

Awesome.

Well, thank you.

I'm so happy you asked me to be on here. And, you know, Keith has never met you guys. We love you guys. And, you know, throughout the years, I've continued to pray for y' all and seeing where you've been and what all the church and you guys have been through. And, man, God is so faithful, and he has shown his mercy, and grace is just poured out over your lives and so grateful for your friendship. And I just know the best is yet to come.

Yes.

Amen.

I love you girls. So y' all go get Tasha Layton's book, Go get music, Support her in her concerts, her endeavors. Pray for her, for her and her family. I know the best is yet to come for you, girl. And thank you for being here. Again, it's Ron and Hope Unfiltered. Until next time.