Yesterday, the movie Frozen came out on DVD. We had been to the theater twice to watch it and I kid you not, my 5 year old woke up and said “Good morning Dad… (groggy eyed and stretching while a huge smile spreads across her face) Frozen comes out today and we need to go to the store and buy it…” Me, being the super awesome dad that I am, had already headed to Walmart and purchased it. Needless to say the movie and songs have been a big hit at our house. In watching parts of the movie again last night I thought of a few lessons that I thought could be drawn from the movie. [Spoiler Alert: if you haven’t seen the movie this post is filled with spoilers so proceed with caution.]
I am breaking this post into two parts (the beginning vs. the happy ending).
Hiding our passions/talents is boring
Seriously, sitting in a room all by yourself while your sister is running around the house entertaining herself for hours on end. That can’t be fun. When we have something we love to do and especially if we are good at it, we need to get out and share it. Don’t hide your talents because you are afraid what others think or you don’t think that it is something that is useful, get out and share it with the world.
Fear freezes and paralyzes us
In the beginning the Trolls warn that fear is the enemy of Elsa’s powers. Instead of the powers being fun and happy (which they obviously were when the girls played), they become something she hides and fears the power and potential she has. Fear develops that it will be difficult to be a great, loving queen while having these powers, without hurting or making others afraid. Soon she is so scared she tries to stay away from people. When that is no longer possible (held off to the very last minute) she reluctantly allows herself out. When things start to go wrong completely embraces the fear literally freezing everyone else out of her life.
Don’t run from your problems
After letting her fear take over, Elsa feels empowered and decides she will just run off and be big and powerful on her own. She runs from her “job” of being the queen and decides life would be better to ignore everyone and just live in solitude. What she doesn’t realize is that her actions do affect those around her. In fact, she set off an eternal winter which plunged the entire town into a deep freeze. By embracing the fear and running she actually causes her people to fear her and want her dead. Even when her sister Anna comes to help her and tries to convince her to come back she pushes away deeper. Running only caused her more problems than confronting the fear in the first place.
Summary
Don’t run from problems in your life; confront them head on and don’t be afraid to win. Don’t let fear win and paralyze you, keeping you from the true successes you can achieve. Embrace your passions and do good in the world. Use your talents to make the world a better place. Recognize that you will sometimes make mistakes but those things don’t mean you are a bad person. There are many, many other lessons that can be taken from the movie. In my next post I will look at the ending portion of the movie, and how we can overcome some of the negative in our lives.
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