We recently connected with LaQuita Monley and have shared our conversation below.
LaQuita , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
In 1995, I became a teenage Mom and in 1997 I became a very young “Army wife”. For over 24 years our family was a proud Army family and now a very proud Veteran’s Family. It was during my journey as an Army wife, that I had a triggering moment that let me know I had no idea at that time who I was. So began a journey of self discovery for me as well as spiritual journey to discover who God is.
It is my passion to help other military and veteran spouse to find their place of courage, destiny and power,
LaQuita , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
In 1995, I became a teenage Mom and in 1997 I became a very young “Army wife”. For over 24 years our family was a proud Army family and now a very proud Veteran’s Family. It was during my journey as an Army wife, that I had a triggering moment that let me know I had no idea at that time who I was. So began a journey of self discovery for me as well as spiritual journey to discover who God is.
It is my passion to help other military and veteran spouse to find their place of courage, destiny and power, In my journey of self-discovery, I realized that everything in life hinges on IDENTITY. When I came to a greater awareness of who GOD is, I became very clear on who I am and what I have been created to do.
I was no longer singularly identified by my husband’s rank and position or my job title, but I realized I am SOOO Much more……
It has become my mission to help active duty and veteran spouses to understand the power of IDENTITY.
Everything—and I do mean everything—hinges on identity.
It is the compass of our faith that aligns with the Holy Spirit to fulfill the Father’s will. Wrapped up in identity is who we are, the purpose of our being, and every God-breathed promise that manifests as our success.
This self-awareness is the filter for our desires. Identity undergirds our values, aspirations, and overall view of what it means to excel in life. Without the revelation of who we were created to be, a huge gulf tends to exist between where we are and what we are called to be, do, and experience. Lacking this inner knowing causes us to get caught up in fantasies and fallacies about who we are and what we want, which sets us up for a trail of disappointments.
As a Keynote Speaker, Minister, Podcast Host and TV Talk Show Host I am able to connect with my clients in a number of different ways:
Keynote Speaking
Transformational Coaching (Maxwell Method of DISC Certified)
Workshops
Masterclasses
Podcast
TV Talk Show
Books
and more………..
Through this amazing journey I have been blessed to achieve some wonderful things but the biggest blessing and what I am most proud of is being Wife(31 years of relationship & 26 years of marriage), Mom(5 adult children) and Grandmother(5 amazing little people). It took me many years to understand the value and importance of these roles and I wholeheartedly embrace them and realize that they are the foundation and very important building block that has helped develop me into “BOSS” that I am today……
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
In 1994, I found out that I was pregnant. This would become one of the most defining moments of my life. My boyfriend and I had a life changing decision to make at the very young ages of 17 and 19. We would eventually decide to keep our baby and in 1995, I became a teenage mom.
Life changed..
Responsibilities, pressures, condemnation of others, negative self talk and so much more not only happened during my pregnancy but after my son was born. Through it all, my desire to not become a negative statistic as just another poor, black girl, from the low income project of small town Mississippi drove me to succeed. These same desires and more fueled my husband(then boyfriend) as well , we did not know how we would do it, but we agreed that our new family would not become a statistic.
There were so many odds stacked against our young family:
lack of education
lack of experience
No money
and more……
Starting my adult journey as mom and age 18 and wife at age 19 was hard, going through post postpartum depression, anxiety, and being separated from family because the Army moved us over 500 miles from home was tough, but by God’s grace what could have separated and destroyed our new family we found a way to make things work together for our good.
Over the years the Lord has blessed me with the opportunity to get an education, career, business and travel the world. I have learned that when life throws the kitchen sink at you, use that sink and begin to build a beautiful home.
The challenges I faced because of one decision that I made when having unprotected sex became the catalyst for many hard decisions later in my life and I could have allowed those things to overwhelm me into a place of giving up. but I thank God for my husband and my support system, they would not allow me to give up on myself or my dreams.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I had to unlearn negative thinking.
One of the first lessons that I learned as a new Christian was the power of my thoughts. I had a habit as most people do of commentating my problems, venting my frustrations. It was during a conversation with a church leader that she shared with me an analogy of why “forts” or “fortresses” were built.
The great walls of these cities were meant to protect them but they also had the potential to become their death sentence. Danielle would go on to share with me that these stronghold can be viewed like our thoughts. My thoughts about life, marriage, motherhood, education, etc had been firmly erected in my life based on my own personal experience as protective mechanism to keep me safe. Just as with the strongholds of old my stronghold “house of thoughts” would keep bad things out but they also kept good things from coming in.
I had to change the way that I thought so that I could change my life!! The process was/is called the process of change.
Think
Say
Do
What I think is what I say
What I say is what I do
What I do determines who I AM
Unlearning old ways of thinking and doing things because they no longer served me and opening myself up to learn new things and implementing new strategies made it possible for me to grow.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.laquitamonley.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laquita_monley/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LMMonley/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laquitamonley/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/laquitamonley1
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LMonleyToolbox/
- Other: https://www.laquitamonley.com/laquitastoolbox https://www.buymeacoffee.com/laquitastoolbox