Imagine you are thirsty and craving a soft drink you occasionally like to have. You fill up a large glass with crushed ice, pop open your can of soda, and begin to pour. What do you see? The liquid slowly seeps into every crook and cranny, filling every tiny space between the pieces of ice until the soft drink settles.
That is an excellent image and model of how we must grow–knowledge, poured into our mind, must fizzle down into every aspect of who we are. This is the same image I think of when I consider the word inculcate in this context. We must not be satisfied with cursory head knowledge. For ideas to transform, they must infiltrate, permeate, and pierce through every aspect of our thoughts, habits, and life.
I love the power of words, and I love the imagery of inculcation. If you like the word and think to incorporate it into your thinking and leadership life, here is another good definition for it. To inculcate means to instill, implant, or teach something firmly and persistently, often through repetition or gradual instruction. It involves imparting ideas, beliefs, values, knowledge, or habits into a person’s mind or behavior in a way that they become deeply ingrained and part of one’s character or understanding.
Inculcation typically aims to make information or principles a lasting and integral part of an individual’s consciousness.
Whether it be in my or your spiritual life or leadership life, I pray that the Lord will teach us, help us mature, and deeply shape us from within. I pray that we have new ideas and better perspectives seared in our mind, inculcated deeply into our soul.
