It’s been a while friends! There are lots of ways that God has been working in my life and in how He wants to use me both online and “offline”. My passion and purpose is being refined as I get older and so I hope to reflect that on here. More on all that later. BUT for something new to kick us off….it’s time for another challenge!

If you’ve been around here for any amount of time you know that my challenges or series are initiated from real life experience either with the people God has placed in my life and/or my OWN life experience. We are all starting to exit a, shall we say, unique time in history. A worldwide pandemic which impacted us physically, financially and socially filled our timelines and households. A huge election year mixed with racial tensions thrown into an already tumultuous time presented the perfect storm for many us to feel nothing like we did 18 months ago. The emotions run the gamut from depressed, hopeless, angry, blah, grateful and just a general “I’m over it!” feel.

I am no different than you all. This past year has left me rattled. I have found myself saying, “I wish we could just go back to pre-covid!” Now you have to remember, just like each one of you reading this, we all did not JUST experience a pandemic. Real life continued to occur. So for some of you, that meant your marriage split up while others of you found out a loved one has cancer. Maybe some have had a child is going down a road you don’t want them on. For me, we renovated a “fixer upper” minus the help we had planned on having which meant I went from everything I used to do to being a shoddy version of Joanna Gaines.

I’ll save a ton of details but as I’ve been working on getting some sort of “new normal” established in my life, I’ve been picking up many things along the way. Various convos with people, articles I read and podcasts I listen to inform me. I also was able to “survey” some of my readers on IG stories asking you these 3 questions:

  • What did you pick up during the pandemic that you want to keep? (a benefit)
  • What did you pick up during the pandemic that you want to drop? (a deterrent)
  • What did you remove during the pandemic that you want to add back in?

Here are some of the responses:

I got so many great responses, some I expected and many I did not. I knew that God was working up something in me to not just do personally but also to share with you and here we are…”The Take it Back +” challenge is here!

With all that background info, let’s get into what the premise of this 21 challenge is:

  • Walk 20 min 5 times a week
  • Fast from something
  • Take it back!
  • Do it with a friend (or group)

What you will get from me:

  • Weekly IG video with encouragement
  • Weekly prayer focus & verse
  • Encouragement!

I have held challenges before where there have been check-ins and prizes but I do not feel that is needed for this. It will be very specific to you and flexible to fit where you are.

I’ve got more thoughts to share but wanted to get this out since we start in less than a week. (Hey, I’ve had a busy few months haha!) So be sure to stay connected to me on instagram and facebook (@claresmithofficial) for daily content. We start Tuesday June 1st for 21 days so I hope you join us! Be sure to share this post with your friends!