Family Movie Devotionals: How to Train Your Dragon

In “How to Train Your Dragon,” Hiccup just wants to be like everyone else. While all his friends and family are muscular dragon killers, Hiccup is scrawny and thinks he has no hope of ever killing a dragon. But then, he is given the chance to change all that. He captures one of the rarest and most powerful dragons there is. If he killed a Night Fury, he would be a legend forever. He would even win the approval of his hard-to-please father. But there’s one problem: Hiccup doesn’t want to kill the dragon. In fact, he actually becomes friends with him! He learns that dragons can be gentle creatures that can help and be kind to Vikings. But in the eyes of the world, Hiccup has failed. He has one chance to prove to everyone that he is a manly man, and he chooses compassion instead. When his father learns what he’s done, he says, “You're not a Viking. You're not my son." Hiccup’s decision to choose love over violence is a huge risk. Will his family and friends ever accept him?

All of us will have to make decisions like this in life. Our friends might pressure us into doing things that we shouldn’t do. The Bible has a lot to say about this. Romans 12:2 says “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” This means we shouldn’t be looking at what everyone else is doing, but that we should look to God to help us decide. And Jesus always chooses love over hate, compassion over violence, and life over death.

God is also not like Hiccup’s dad. God will never tell us, “You are not my son.” When we are in Christ, God will always tell us, “You are my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11). Not only will God guide us in the right way, but he also will never leave us if we choose the wrong way. We don’t have to be tough enough, brave enough, or good enough to be God’s child. We never have to prove anything to God, He will always love us no matter what. That’s why we don’t need to worry about impressing our friends and family. We don’t need to slay dragons to win God’s approval. We already have it.

These devotionals are resources you can use to teach your kids about Jesus! Movies have a unique ability to connect to and influence children, and we want to use this to advance God's Kingdom. These are designed for you to read with your children after you watch the movie. We pray these will be used to teach children in fun ways that they can easily understand. We hand these out at our monthly Community Movie Nights, where we show a free family-friendly movie (see our events page for upcoming dates).