Black Women Have It Going On

Tuesday, September 22, 2026

Good morning from Colorado! Yesterday, we talked about the saying, “The teacher will appear when the student is ready to learn.” Today, I want to take that thought a little further because I’ve discovered something else about learning: the teacher may not look like a teacher.

In fact, the teacher could be standing right in front of you with their nose touching yours, and you could still miss the lesson.

Why? Because we have ideas about what a teacher is supposed to look like. We may expect someone older, more educated, more experienced, or someone who has accomplished something we admire. We may even expect the person teaching us to have a title that gives them permission to speak into our lives.

But life doesn’t always work that way.

Sometimes wisdom comes from someone younger than we are. Sometimes it comes from someone with a background completely different from ours. Sometimes it comes from a person we never considered particularly wise. And sometimes the person teaching us isn’t trying to teach us anything at all. They may simply be living their life, saying something, or handling a situation in a way that gives us something to consider.

That can be difficult for us because we often judge the message by the messenger.

If we respect the person, we’re more likely to listen. If we admire their accomplishments, we’re more likely to consider their advice. But if we don’t think much of them, we may dismiss what they say before we’ve even considered whether there is something valuable in it.

I’ve learned that can be a mistake.

Discernment and dismissal are different. Discernment says, “Let me listen and determine whether this is true and useful.” Dismissal says, “I already know enough about this person to know they can’t teach me anything.”

Those two attitudes may sound similar, but they lead us in completely different directions.

I’ve also discovered that sometimes we don’t recognize a teacher because the lesson challenges something we already believe. We can be perfectly comfortable until somebody says something that makes us uncomfortable. Then our first instinct may be to defend what we know instead of examining what we’ve heard.

That’s when we have to be careful.

Being teachable doesn’t mean believing everything everyone tells us. It doesn’t mean surrendering our common sense or letting people make decisions for us. It means having enough humility to listen before deciding that there is nothing for us to learn.

I think God has a way of doing that.

He can place wisdom in unexpected places. He can allow a conversation to make us think differently. He can use someone’s experience to expose something we haven’t considered. He can even let someone who has no idea they’re teaching us leave a lesson behind.

The question isn’t always, “Is this person qualified to teach me?”

Sometimes the better question is, “Is there something here I need to learn?”

Those are two very different questions.

One keeps the door closed until the right person arrives. The other leaves the door open while we use wisdom to determine what belongs inside.

As I think about that, I’m reminded that God doesn’t need to make every lesson comfortable. Sometimes the very thing that irritates us can reveal something about ourselves. Sometimes the person we would never choose as a mentor can cause us to reconsider an idea. Sometimes a simple conversation can expose an area where we still have room to grow.

And perhaps that’s why we should be careful about deciding too quickly who can teach us.

The person in front of us may not have the degree. They may not have the title. They may not have the experience we think qualifies them. They may not even realize they’ve said anything significant.

But if their words cause us to stop, think, and examine ourselves, perhaps we should at least be willing to listen.

After all, a lesson doesn’t become less valuable just because we didn’t expect the teacher to deliver it.

Scripture

Proverbs 12:15 (KJV)

“The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.”

That verse reminds me that being certain isn’t the same thing as being wise. Sometimes wisdom begins with the willingness to hear something outside of ourselves.

And perhaps the teacher isn’t missing.

Perhaps we’ve been looking for the wrong person.

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