HOW BISHOP T. D. JAKES DAUGHTER GREW FROM TEEN PREGNANCY TO LEADER

This post is very necessary here and now. With mails from pregnant students looking for how to give up their babies, to young pregnant and confused girls asking to know if it’s possible to get pregnant as a ‘virgin’. A young undergraduate got disowned by her Nigerian parents some years back (South East) for getting pregnant. She suffered, nearly lost her life as she moved to a different part of the country, rented a small place with the little savings she still had, just to stay and nurse her pregnancy in private, away from those who know her and away from everything she is used to. (Naija parents sha, may God teach and help us to show affection to our kids, to forget what the world will say and truly be there for these kids at all times).


 All through the period of this unwanted pregnancy, no family member called nor sent a ‘Hi’ message, not even her dear mom. She nearly died from post natal bleeding soon after the baby was born. Succeeded in giving up for adoption, the child she adored so much, just she could quickly return back to school. Since that incident, one question has been lingering on my mind; Her parents… How are they coping without asking after their ‘grandchild’ Does that pregnancy make her unworthy of their love? When they disowned their daughter, how did it make them feel? What if she had died in that lonely city she went to hide all by herself?


Is the love for a child supposed to be conditional? If you disown your child for a mistake, honestly you have unconsciously stated  your love for them has conditional tags attached. You make them feel like you can only give love when a child is perfect. Unconditional, whole hearted, pure love for our children means that we try to accept and love them regardless of mistakes and blunders and foolishness. We help them up when they fall, show them the way and just be there for them. 

Bishop T. D. Jakes’ once pregnant teen daughter speaks with blogger Necole, read below…

Less than a year after Time magazine published T.D. Jakes “America’s Best Preacher,” Sarah his 13 year old daughter discovered that she was pregnant. Although her family stood by her side as the judgment poured in, the shame that loomed wouldn’t be easy to shake. Sarah worked tirelessly to finish high school early while raising her son, but her attempt to redeem her image unraveled in college as she sunk into an unhealthy relationship (and, later, marriage) marked by infidelity and deceit.

“I think that toxic relationship was my drug of choice,” she reflects. “Other people may dive into work, they may dive into alcohol, they may smoke something. For me, that relationship was a distraction from me having to deal with my own pain and issues, and I don’t think that I could get to a place where I was ready to receive love again until I figured out why I needed to be distracted from myself.”

On the brink of divorce, Sarah launched a personal blog as an outlet to address her hurt through prayers and stories that mirrored her own. In this space, she didn’t have to conceal her brokenness. Here, she had the liberty to own her scars.

Little did she know, she would draw an audience of women longing to do the same. “I didn’t really think that it was ministry but the more that it became increasingly clear that it was, I just made a vow that I was going to be as authentic and transparent as I could be,” she says.

Her memoir Lost and Found: Finding Hope in the Detours of Life, a vivid look into her biggest trials and the grace she collided with through them all, followed in 2014. “I felt so many of my experiences were interconnected that I could not paint just half the picture for the person reading it,” Sarah insists. “I wanted them to see the full scope of how I ended up in some really challenging but, ultimately, defining moments of my life.”

In the years to come, she would rediscover love, expand her family with husband Touré Roberts, and settle into a purpose far greater than she imagined. “I’d say 2017 is when I really decided to embrace fully that I have a call and that my call is unique to where I am, and it’s not limited to where I’m invited but rather it is maximized when I use it to build things that reflect the people who are attached to it,” Sarah explains.

This July, she did just that with her first-ever Woman Evolve conference in Denver. Within two days, women in attendance heard from the likes of Angela Rye, Michelle Williams, and Tiffany “The Budgetnista” Aliche during a life-altering experience that promoted both spiritual and practical development.

The idea for the event came to life when the first lady made a notable observation at a women’s conference she spoke at earlier in the year. “It stood out in my mind that the women had on these ‘Squad Goals’ shirts that had Mary, Esther, and Ruth on it, and I was like nobody ever wants Eve to be in their squad goals because Eve messed up so bad by eating from this forbidden fruit,” she exclaims.



As a result, Sarah committed to studying the Book of Genesis where she discovered that Eve’s story didn’t end in disgrace as common legend would have it after all. “There’s this moment when God tells her that her seed is going to crush the head of the serpent,” she points out. “If Eve could evolve past her mistakes, she could give birth to something that would ultimately bring restoration. For me, that is the foundation of Woman Evolve–the idea that at some point, we can all identify with being Eve. We can all identify with moments where we knew better but didn’t do better, but if we’re willing to evolve, then the sky is the limit and restoration is possible for us.”

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