Below are Kids Movie Talking Points for Encanto.
Everyone in Mirabel’s family has a unique magical gift. What are some of the gifts that God has given each member of your family?
How do those gifts bless your family?
Why does God give us gifts and talents?
We are given gifts not to serve ourselves, but to serve others, especially the church. 1 Peter 4:10 says, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
Mirabel is sad because she isn’t given a magical gift. How can we be happy if we aren’t gifted like others?
Gifts are a blessing, but the greatest gift of all is that we are loved by God. If God loved us so much that he died for us, then even if we don’t have gifts that others do we can still be happy.
In the movie, Luisa feels like she is going to crack under the pressure of feeling like she always needs to be perfect. Do you ever feel like that?
What should we do when we feel worried that we can’t be perfect?
We must remember that we can’t be perfect because we all sin. In fact, 1 John 1:8 says, “if anyone claims to be without sin, he is a liar and the truth is not him.” Thankfully, Jesus was perfect. He never cracked under the pressure, but died on the cross in our place so we could be perfect in his sight. Now, if we’ve trusted in Christ, we work to please our loving, heavenly Father (Col. 3:23), and if we try our best and fail we are still loved by him, and we can learn from our mistakes.
Mirabel’s grandma, Abuela Madrigal, ends up valuing the magical family gifts more than her family. What do you tend to wrongly value more than people?
We should value God more than anything or anyone (Matt. 22:37-39), and we should love people next after God. When we value things over God and people we hurt others and we don’t use our gifts or possessions to bless others, which is the most fun way to use them.
How can we grow to value God and people more than things?
By seeing how God valued us by dying in our place. We don’t deserve his love, but by his grace he died for us. When we trust in Christ we know he’s forgiven us and loves us and that causes us to love and value him more than anything. When we’re filled up with God’s love we want to pour it into others. Also, when we love God first we want to obey him by loving people.
Mike McGregor
Mike McGregor (MDiv, Reformed Theological Seminary) is Director of College Ministry at First Baptist Church in Durham, N.C. You can follow him on Twitter at @m5mcgregor.
