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One Step

Updated: 5 hours ago

Dericka Canada Cunningham, GBW Founder

January 26, 2026



This Week's Anchor


“He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. 

Nothing will be impossible for you.””

Matthew 17:20-21 (NIV)

Welcome to another year of the Grounded Black Women (GBW) devotional community! I want to welcome our new subscribers to the GBW family and express my gratitude to our faithful community who have supported this ministry for the past FIVE years! As the founder of this online community, I am humbled to continue in this calling for another year, and I’m excited about new ways of connecting as our community evolves [Selfish Plug: If you haven’t already, follow this link to complete our online feedback survey!]

 

For this first devotion of the year, I want to share a personal moment that recently liberated me, in the hope that it will encourage you. As exhilarating as a new year can be, I wouldn’t be honest if I said re-engaging GBW this January was an easy feat. In fact, in complete transparency, despite entering the year motivated to pursue personal and health goals, each time I felt God’s tug to reignite and elevate this ministry, I felt…overwhelmed.

 

When I first launched GBW back in 2021, the ideas were overflowing. God poured an unbelievable amount of vision into me as I drafted plans and prayed about what this movement could become. This ministry began with a humble group of just a few Black women, but each week I shared what God has imparted to me over the years as if I were witnessing to the masses. I gathered my footing in writing and planning devotions across each year, and by year two, this community grew to a few hundred subscribers. As our community grew, I knew it was time for the mission to transform, but as is true for many of us, the end of 2024 hit me in the gut, and I’m now realizing that 2025 was truly a year of regrouping for me. I had hopes to move this community further into God’s purpose last year, but frankly, I was exhausted and in serious survival mode.

 

I entered this year more hopeful and grounded in listening to God, but as I considered all we have been through and all we are collectively witnessing and experiencing in our society and world right now, the thought of offering something more in these times quickly became daunting. I felt I didn’t have enough to help or do all that I felt God was calling me to do. So…I waited…and procrastinated…and waited some more, and one day I made it to the end of the week that I mentally classified as my final week to get myself together, and I heard (or felt, or imagined) a still voice that whispered, “Just trust me, and move.” I had dragged on for far too long, so I obliged and listened to that voice. As I prayed, approached things, and made movement, I felt more inspired and energized. I looked up and had somehow locked in for hours of planning and organizing, and as I paused to acknowledge all that had been done, the ideas started to flow freely, and my vision for this year became clearer. I chuckled to myself because I couldn’t believe it was that easy, and seriously wondered why I dragged on for so long. As I basked in the relief of this unexpected mental shift, I recalled the lyrics to an old school gospel song that our beloved mass choir used to sing when I was a kid: “One step. One step. All I have to do is take one step, and He will do the rest.” As I sang this song quietly in my office, I said to myself, well, I be, He really did do the rest! 

 

With the approaching holiday, I also remembered the wise words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in that moment: “Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase.” I felt incredibly encouraged, realizing how little God needed from me. Donald Vails and Dr. King were right: just one first, tiny step was all God required to produce hours' worth of fruit and years' worth of vision. I knew this spiritually, yet my flesh still struggled to remember how God works. As I sought to understand how and why I struggled to evoke the mustard seed-size faith that our anchor scripture highlights, the psychologist in me considered the psychology of procrastination, and more truthfully, perfectionism…

 

Perfectionism, that thing I help a lot of clients navigate. That pesky thing that had a hold on my teens and twenties, that I thought I had handled pretty well, but am clearly still recovering from…In my psychotherapy sessions, I make the connection between perfectionism and procrastination, and, for example, when a college student is struggling to start an academic paper, I illuminate perfectionism’s tendency to shift our focus to the ending (i.e., a fully completed product) rather than the beginning (i.e., simply starting). And here I was, starting this year of GBW, getting overwhelmed by all I wanted to do and all I hoped GBW would become in…the end. All the while, if only I had mustard-seed-sized trust in God to help me through the process and take care of the outcome while I just…simply…started. What a powerful lesson I re-learned that day. That’s the beauty of God. Not only is He willing to re-teach us, but He does it gracefully and with compassion. 

 

I hope this story inspires you into movement this week. I share it openly to remind us all that none of us are above struggling to do God’s work, even when the anointing is strong. We are human, and God understands that. Likewise, and most importantly, none of us are beneath God’s grace or too far beyond God’s reach. I pray for your liberation in this truth. We will continue this topic next week, and I will break down this experience and our scripture further, sharing ways we can approach movement with God.

 

As for this week, may we feel inspired to take one step toward God’s calling. May we be filled with radical hope to move even when moving is hard. And may each moment we question ourselves be paired with more powerful moments of remembering our God.

Reflection

  • What is resonating for you about this scripture and/or this devotion?

  • What is God calling you toward in this season?

  • What intention(s) do you want to set to connect and/or reconnect with being grounded this week?


Related Scriptures to Ground You Through this Week

  • Tuesday: Psalm 23

  • Wednesday: Proverbs 3:5-6

  • Thursday: Jeremiah 17:7-8

  • Friday: Isaiah 41:10

  • Saturday: Luke 1:37

  • Sunday: Philippians 4:13; Ephesians 3:20


My Through-the-Week Reflection Guide

A Song of Inspiration


Quote of Love & Liberation


“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”

Harriet Tubman







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