Dr. Carrie explains what edification is, the importance of doing it, and the impact of edifying someone, especially people you interact with on a regular basis.
The word edification or edify means to build someone up by means of, like, using your words, clapping for them. Kerry invited the Cadre family to talk about how you can edify people more often. Who have you recently edified? How can you do more of that?
Hey, Cadre family doctor Kerry here. I want to talk about a word that I actually didn't learn until about a year ago, and it's called edification or edify. I learned this word actually through my church when I was taking a business mastermind class for five months. And I was really surprised at my church about just how much we clap the preacher up like we stand up. People say, oh, yeah, amen. For those wondering, I go to just like a non denominational church. But I was like, this is a different culture here.
And then when I joined this business class, I learned what that concept of edification meant, but also how it means and what it looks like to honor someone. And they have a really big culture of honor at my church. And I struggled with this for a while because I thought, gosh, aren't we just kind of stroking their egos? And for those wondering, the word edification or edify means to build someone up by means of, like, using your words, clapping for them. Often it means, you know, building up with your words.
A lot of times when a presenter gets up to speak, somebody will read a bio about them and say, like, you know, this is why this person is such an amazing expert. Yada, yada. I was speaking at a conference a week ago and they just did such a good job of this before I got up to speak, they just raved about me. And one time I got an applause before I even said anything, and I was like, okay, hold up, don't applause yet, because you haven't even heard me speak. But just them edifying me made them applause for me, which was just so honoring.
And I can tell you that when you're on the receiving end of this, it feels incredible to be edified. But I really struggled with this for a while because I thought, why are we doing so much of this? Like, this is a little excessive, that we're constantly honoring people, constantly edifying them, constantly speaking good about them. And it really pointed to a root issue inside of me of a pride and an ego that I needed to address. So I'll just say that up front. But once I overcame that and learned, like, how powerful it is to edify someone, I thought, we need to be doing more of this in everything I do.
And so I invited the Cadre family to talk about this, and it was just so fun to talk about, like, who have you recently edified? How can we do more of that as a group? What does that look like for us? And we, I think just as a general society can do a better job at this because it's not natural, necessarily, for us to build someone up or talk about them, especially when they're not even there. But, you know, we occasionally do this on someone's birthday. I went to a birthday party, and everybody went around and said one nice thing about this person, and I was like, oh, this is so cool.
Why aren't we doing this on a daily basis, though? Why does it take someone's birthday to say nice things to them? So I just want you to think about that today. Who have you recently edified? How can you do more of that? And if this is, like, irking you, I want to invite you to explore that, because I get it. I was there, and there was kind of, like a pride thing I had to overcome. That's why I was struggling with edifying other people. And so I just want you to think about those things and think about how you can edify people more often, especially people that you're in direct contact with on a regular basis.
Like, for example, I used to speak so poorly about my ex husband in front of him, to him, but, like, we would rip each other apart in front of other people. And it was just kind of our dynamic, and it was so unhealthy, so unhelpful, did not foster emotional intimacy in any way, shape, or form. And so I've made a really conscious decision in my new relationship, as I embarking on marriage again, to not do that and to edify him and lift him up with my words, whether he's in the room or not. And just think about what kind of dynamic that can make in your relationships if you do that with people.
So that's what I want to invite you to think about today. Thank you for tuning in with me.
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