To The Core: What Are Core Values?

In the movie “A Few Good Men” Tom Cruise played a defense attorney for two Marines on trial for murdering another marine. The defense strategy is to show that the murder occurred because of the order of higher ranking officers. The defendants had been assigned to train a new recruit, and unfortunately it resulted in his death.

When Tom Cruise began investigating the murder, the prosecution hurriedly attempted to cover-up the involvement of higher-ups. The prosecution offered a plea bargain that would reduce the sentence from 20 years to 6 months.

Ecstatic, Tom Cruise met with his clients and told them the wonderful news. But one of the defendants, Harold, won’t accept the plea bargain insisting that he was innocent. He would rather go to trial and risk spending 20 years in prison than confess to a crime he didn’t commit.

Incredulous, Tom Cruise asked Harold why he just didn’t take the six month sentence. Harold replied, “Unit, Corps, God, Country.” Cruise didn’t understand his response and asked Harold, “What?” Again Harold stated, “Unit, Corps, God, Country.”

Tom Cruise still was puzzled and Harold explained that those are the core values of the United States Marine Corps. Dumbfounded, Cruise replied, “If you want to go to jail for the rest of your life, you go right ahead.”

To Harold, “Unit, Corps, God, Country” weren’t only Corps Values, they were his Core Values. And he was willing to go to jail for 20 years rather than violate them.

Values are the standards, morals, ethics and ideals that are important to a person.  They usually can be stated in one word, such as freedom, equality or justice.  They always are operating either consciously or unconsciously.

Core Values are your most deeply held, fundamental values.  They are stable, indispensable, resistant and unchangeable.  Your core values are highly esteemed, greatly respected, and deeply treasured.  Although you ascribe to many values, you adhere to no more than 3-5 truly core values in your life.

A number of years ago a church offered me the position of Director of Children’s Ministry. It was an attractive offer since I had been a public school teacher and was at that time a school principal. Moreover, I’d always wanted to serve full-time on the church staff and recognized that it was a position of honor and influence.

I prayed about the decision and spent hours talking about it with my wife. Ultimately, I turned down the offer for one simple reason. It didn’t align with my core value of Calling. I believe God has a specific ministry assignment for every Christian that aligns with their spiritual gifts and passions. The position required the gift of leadership and a passion to impact children. My spiritual gift is teaching and my passion is guiding people to understand their unique calling. The position – as desirable as it was – didn’t align with my core value of Calling.

This current post offered a definition of core values. In this series we’ll take a look at four other key questions concerning core values:

1. Why Are Core Values Important?
2. How Do Core Values Develop?
3. Will Your Core Values Change?
4. What Are Your Core Values?

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