Black Women Have It Going On

Good morning from Colorado! I’ve heard a phrase many times over the years: “Hurt people hurt people.” The more I think about it, the more I realize hurt can be passed down long before a person is old enough to understand what hurt even means. Think about a newborn baby. A parent may have dreamed about having that baby, imagined how wonderful motherhood or fatherhood would be, and pictured all the beautiful moments. But then the baby arrives, and reality sets in. The baby cries, sleeps during the day and wakes at night, needs to be fed, changed, held, and comforted—and sometimes becomes demanding just when the parent is running on fumes. I remember those moments as a young mother. I loved my children, but I didn’t have an infrastructure around me to help me navigate motherhood. I was learning as I went. And when you’re exhausted, overwhelmed, and don’t know what you’re doing, sometimes your own frustration can spill over onto someone who had nothing to do with causing it.

But here is where I see a little light shining through that reality. Hurt doesn’t always have to be permanent, and neither does the cycle. Sometimes God allows a more-seasoned person to step into our lives and show us what we didn’t know. Someone who has already walked through the valley can reach back and help someone who is just entering it. Maybe that’s part of why God never intended us to walk through life completely alone. We learn things through experience, but we also learn because someone older, wiser, and more seasoned was willing to teach us. And perhaps that’s one way a cycle gets interrupted—not because we suddenly know everything, but because someone cared enough to say, “Let me show you what I’ve learned.”

The Call to Action

Today, let’s take a few minutes and think about the people who helped shape us. Who stepped into your life when you were inexperienced, overwhelmed, or simply didn’t know what to do? And just as importantly, ask yourself this question: Am I willing to become that person for someone else?

We don’t have to know everything to teach something. Sometimes the greatest lesson we can give another person is simply sharing what we learned while walking through our own experience.

Scripture

Titus 2:3–5 (KJV)

“The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness… That they may teach the young women…”

God’s design includes generations helping generations. Wisdom comes with age, and purpose comes from sharing what life has taught us.

Maybe the question isn’t only, “Who hurt me?”

Maybe we should also ask, “Who helped me heal—and who can I help?”

I’ll see you tomorrow for another 15 Minutes with God.