This Week's Spotlight-Lakita Stewart-Thompson: "From Pain to Purpose"

Lakita Stewart-Thompson is a servant of the Lord, visionary, mother, daughter, sister, mentor, entrepreneur, community advocate, teacher, and #1 best-selling author. Raised in Maryland, Lakita is the Founder/President of Mothers & Daughters United Worldwide (www.namaduw.org), which fosters "Better Bonds Between Daughters and Moms". Her ultimate desire is to have an organization that creates better situations for women and girls in crisis around the globe through words and acts of service.

Through personal challenges of abandonment, rejection, depression, disappointment, hurt, pain, and abuse, Lakita was in a place of feeling alone, stuck, numb and paralyzed. After years of battling within, she began to seek God for direction and healing. This is when her life began to shift for the best. Lakita became a teacher of at-risk youth and went on a missionary assignment to Kenya, Africa which positioned her for the foundation of her vision to become an advocate for women and girls in crisis situations due to traumatic life altering circumstances.

Lakita is currently a Program Assistant for the Department of Homeland Security, Office of Intelligence and Analysis, with the responsibility to assist in enhancing security of the aviation transportation system. Lakita obtained her under-graduate degree Business Administration in 2001 from Bowie State University. She completed her MBA at American Military University in 2011 and was nominated for a community award for outstanding service from the Student Alumni Association of AMU. She was also acknowledged in 2013 for exceptional service by House of Ruth, MD, for her annual Charity Pampering Event for women and children who suffer domestic violence and homelessness.

After over 15 years of serving the less fortunate in the local community and abroad through church activities, sorority functions, and personal projects, Lakita combined her passion, education, and experiences to create a charity based organization that provides direct services and caters to mothers, daughters, women and girls in crisis.

Lastly, Lakita is the proud mother of an amazing little girl named Destinee. Motherhood is a gift and she does not take for granted. She desires to take her experiences of her past and create a legacy for her daughter that breaks generational curses and generate opportunities for her children and her children’s children. 

She is committed to being an example to many and being an agent of change. In her spare time Lakita enjoys spending quality time with her daughter, traveling, laughing, exploring new ventures, being creative, and hanging out with friends.

Lakita is a firm believer in Jesus Christ and stands on her favorite scriptures Proverbs 3:5-6 and 2 Chronicles 7:14.

My Greatest Accomplishment to Date Has Been:

My greatest accomplishment was getting 45 women to share their stories and published in a book. It was always my dream to be an author and get others to tell their stories to changes lives. God not only gave me the opportunity to see my dream come true, the book is noted as a #1 Amazon New Best Seller on the date of its release; entitled,  Moments in HerStory: From Pain to Purpose.

The Most Challenging Thing I Ever Experienced:

The most challenging thing I’ve ever experienced was having a failed marriage and becoming a single parent. I wanted to overcome the generational curse of divorce, as I am a statistic of it. Although my father remarried and remained married over 30 years, I wanted to defeat the odds. This was a very trying time for me because I didn’t see it coming. I’ve had people give up on me all of my life but I thought my marriage would last forever. The experience really gave me insight on all my unresolved issues that I buried inside and forced me to deal with them in order to be a better parent to my little girl.

Most Valuable Lesson(s): 

My most valuable lesson in life was after my failed marriage. I fully understood what happens when we do not seek God first on all things as we were commanded to do in His word. First, you never enter into anything without God’s approval. Second, you never enter into relationships when you haven’t dealt with your internal issues. You risk hurting someone or getting hurt.  When we make decisions based on our own plan and not go before God for His, we end up in situations that we created that cause us great pain and can place you in a deep state of depression. We are given free will to make decisions; however, it is imperative that God is the center of all that we do. 

My decision to marry without God’s counsel almost cost me my mind and my life. Even in the midst of me making the wrong decisions, God had his hand on me and still managed to bless me despite my disobedience. I was able to resolve some issues within but even greater, I was blessed beyond measure with a beautiful little girl. God gave me my life back by showing me how great His love in the midst of it all. Therefore, my advice to anyone reading this is to have a personal relationship with God, seek Him first in all things, deal with your inner self before committing, and listen attentively to God’s instructions.

Final Remarks: 

I am woman who believes that we all have greatness within us; however, we must know who we are in Christ Jesus. My advice to anyone reading this is to have a personal relationship with God, seek Him first in all things, deal with your inner self before committing to things and people (you can’t what you don’t have), and listen attentively to God’s instructions in every area of your life.

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BOND Inc Spotlight features ordinary African American women who are doing extra-ordinary things. If you or anyone you know would like to be featured, send your requests for more information to iambondinc@gmail.com.