If you’re too young to remember video tape, then you are too young to remember the phrase:

Be Kind, Rewind

It was plastered on most any video you rented.   No one wanted to have to REWIND the whole movie before watching it.  It took time — granted only a couple of minutes, but we are an impatient bunch.  Video store employees also didn’t want to have to rewind every movie — although they did have those snazzy rewind machines.

Rewinding was just a simple kindness — just a little something to help the next person.   But rewinding did something else — it made you pause and consider what you’d just watched.

That’s what I want to do today — just be kind and rewind before I speak.

I want to consider what the other person just said, instead of being so quick to speak up with some pithy comment, a sarcastic remark, or my opinion.   I will pause for just a moment or two and rewind their comments before I craft my own.    I can only imagine I’ll be more kind.   I want to consider what God is doing before I speak into a situation.  I want to remember that I don’t know everything (contrary to the way I act sometimes… okay, most times).

I want to extend great grace to those around me because much grace has been given to me.

 

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Eph 4:32 ESV

 

Today, I’ll be kind and rewind — before I jump in a chatter, I’ll pause.  How about you?