Last Tuesday, we introduced you to the meaning behind Canopy Life Academy’s name in our post What’s In a Name. Reflected in our name, we desire Canopy Life to be a place for family, shelter, and growth. From the beginning, we established a core set of principles that we call our values.
Our culture is inundated with varying opinions on education, foreign affairs, and how to grow character and discipline in the heart of a child. With board members, support staff, teachers, interns, and students coming from all over the globe, our values are what keep us all walking on the same path.
Bonus! We had already chosen these values prior to choosing a name, and love that their acronym (CROWNS) is a synonym for the word canopy!
Creativity: We reflect God’s character by engaging Him in expressions of beauty, vision, innovation and entrepreneurship. God has gifted each person with strengths that reflect His image for His glory and purposes.
For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. – Colossians 1:16-17
See also Romans 12:6-8; I Peter 4:10; Isaiah 43:19; and Ephesians 2:10.
Respect: We see others and ourselves with such dignity, honor and value that it affects every part of our daily life. Respect begins at home.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. – Philippians 2:3-4
See also Exodus 20:12; Ephesians 6:2; Romans 12:3, 13:1-7, and 15:7.
Order: We humbly submit ourselves to God and His desire for harmony in our lives, relationships and systems. Good leaders begin as good followers.
Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account… – Hebrews 13:17
See also Psalms 133:1 and 1 Peter 3:8.
Worship: We joyfully submit our lives in service to God’s purposes. Everything we have and everything we are belongs to God.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. – Deuteronomy 6:5
See also Mark 12:30; 1 Timothy 2:8; and Romans 12:1-2.
Nurture: We embrace and defend an environment of grace where leaders are encouraged to explore, take risks, and discover. Leadership is not a curriculum; it grows out of strong community, starting with healthy family.
Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it. – Proverbs 22:6
See also Deuteronomy 6:4-9.
Service: We love as Christ loved us; expressed in faithful, sacrificial service to others. Everything we are has been given to us to serve others and administer God’s grace in its various forms.
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. – I Peter 4:10
See also Romans 12:1 and Colossians 3:17.