Black Women Have It Going On

Tuesday, September 15, 2026

Good morning from Colorado! Yesterday I told you about my cousin, a squirrel, and three pecan seedlings that ended up in the trash. If you missed yesterday’s post, you’ll want to go back and read it because today’s lesson picks up right where we left off. But the more I thought about those little pecan trees, the more I realized there was another lesson hiding in that story. It wasn’t just about recognizing an opportunity. It was about recognizing what we don’t know.

My cousin is a smart woman. She has lived enough life to have plenty of answers, and she isn’t afraid to share them. But like all of us, there are things she doesn’t know simply because she hasn’t had a reason to learn them. She didn’t know what the squirrel was doing with those pecans. She didn’t know that the little plants growing in her pots were pecan seedlings. And when she discovered what they were, she didn’t see them the way I did. That’s not because she wasn’t intelligent. She simply didn’t have the same information I had.

And isn’t that true for all of us? We can be knowledgeable in one area and completely unfamiliar with another. We can know how to survive difficult circumstances but not know much about business. We can know Scripture but still have things to learn about ourselves. We can have years of experience and still encounter something we’ve never seen before. Not knowing something doesn’t make us ignorant. Refusing to learn when we’re given the opportunity is where we can get ourselves into trouble.

When I told my cousin what I would have done with those pecan seedlings, she wasn’t interested. She wanted the cherry tree she had already decided she wanted, and that was that. I remember thinking, Girl, you’re looking at a potential opportunity sitting right in front of you! I even told her that if it were me, I’d start picking up the pecans falling from those trees and planting them. I wasn’t thinking about some elaborate business plan. I was thinking about starting with what was already available.

Now, before anybody thinks I was trying to turn my cousin into a pecan farmer, let me explain where my mind was going. I have a business degree, and I’ve learned that businesses don’t always begin with a storefront, a large investment, or a perfect plan. Some begin at home. Some begin with one skill. Some begin with one idea. Some begin with something so ordinary that other people overlook it.

I once knew a young woman whose brother started one of Colorado’s pizza chains in his parents’ garage. That stayed with me because it reminded me that we don’t always recognize the beginning while we’re standing in it. The garage didn’t look like a successful business. The first idea probably didn’t look like a chain of restaurants. But beginnings rarely look like endings.

And that’s where I believe God can teach us something.

Sometimes we pray for God to give us more, but we haven’t stopped to consider what we’ve already been given. Sometimes we ask for a new opportunity while overlooking the little opportunity sitting right in front of us. Sometimes we ask God for wisdom but resist learning from people who have knowledge we don’t have.

We don’t know what we don’t know.

That sentence has become more meaningful to me as I’ve grown older. I don’t need to know everything. Neither do you. But I do need to remain teachable. I need to be able to say, “I don’t know. Show me.”

That’s not weakness.

That’s wisdom.

The Takeaway for Us

1. You can be knowledgeable and still have something to learn.
Nobody knows everything. There is always another lesson, another perspective, and another area where we can grow.

2. Don’t confuse confidence with knowledge.
Being certain doesn’t automatically make us right. Sometimes we need to pause long enough to learn something new.

3. Stay teachable.
The person who is willing to say “I don’t know” has opened the door to discovering something they didn’t know before.

The Call to Action

Today, think about an area of your life where you might be saying, “I already know.”

Do you?

Or could there be something more for you to learn?

Is there someone who has experience you don’t have?

Is there a subject you’ve dismissed because you don’t understand it?

Is there an opportunity you’re overlooking because it doesn’t look familiar?

Take a moment and ask God:

“Lord, show me what I don’t know that I need to know.”

That’s a humbling prayer.

But it may also be a life-changing one.

Scripture

Proverbs 1:5 (KJV)

“A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.”

Notice what wisdom does.

It keeps learning.

15 Minutes with God

Father, keep me teachable.

Help me never become so confident in what I know that I close myself off to what I still need to learn.

Give me the humility to say, “I don’t know,” and the courage to ask questions.

Put people in my path who can teach me something I need to know, and give me the wisdom to recognize the value of what they bring.

Help me recognize opportunities I might otherwise overlook.

And when something doesn’t look like what I expected, slow me down long enough to ask whether there is something there I haven’t recognized yet.

Lord, I don’t want to miss what You are trying to teach me simply because I think I already know.

Keep my heart open.

Keep my mind willing.

Keep me teachable.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.

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