Last night my husband and I sat down to watch a movie. We picked one from our stash that we had not seen in a while. It was a VHS tape from 1999, almost an antique! I was getting it ready to watch while my husband was getting our supper plated. I put the tape in, pressed play and the credits were rolling. The last time this movie (A Bug’s Life) was viewed it was not rewound. Before we could start our at home date night, the movie needed to be rewound.

I’m going to show my age here for a minute. I remember as a child going to the movie rental store to rent VHS tapes; those black tapes in the clear plastic case that you were allowed to keep for a day or two. On that clear case would always be a sticker, usually bright orange, that uttered the words “be kind rewind”. It was a simple way to get you to remember to press the rewind button after you viewed the movie so that the next person who rented it would not need to wait to watch the movie.  It was a simple task that would make movie night for others a little bit better. It was about thinking of others. It was about doing what you could to make others happy.

Technology has evolved so much that we do not need to rewind movies anymore. Most of the time we do not even need to leave the house to rent a movie. Those “be kind rewind” stickers are long gone. What about that attitude? Have we let this simple attitude of thinking about others fade away?

Paul was exhorting the church at Philippi to have this kind of attitude. In Philippians 2:1-4 we read:

Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, ² fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. ³ Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. ⁴ Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

Paul was saying that we should not think of ourselves better that anyone else and that we should not only care about ourselves but others also. It’s so easy to get caught up in our own lives that we often forget about others. We tend to forget others are struggling emotionally, physically, or spiritually too. We forget to “be kind rewind”.

Maybe it would do us good to go back to the 90’s and dust off those “be kind rewind” stickers and bring back that simple attitude of thinking about others. Let’s rewind our attitude back to being kind.

By: Kristina Odom