Tell Me Something Good

In Monroe, Ohio, middle school administrators set up a lone microphone beneath a handwritten sign that read, “Tell me something good that happened today.” They mounted a camera, hit record, and then stepped back. What followed was a stream of small, ordinary joys spoken aloud by students passing between classes: “I think I made a new friend today.” “I didn’t miss the bus.” “The muffins in the caf today were actually fire.”

Nothing flashy, nothing scripted -- just children naming goodness out loud. Within days, the video racked up more than 500,000 views on Facebook as people across the country paused to listen to kids celebrate tiny mercies so many of us hurry past. Their school’s Hornets for Hope initiative calls it “#thriveinthehive,” but others are simply calling it a movement—a “positivity mic” trend now popping up in school foyers, cafeterias, hallways, and even on college campuses.

Why is it catching on? Because gratitude spoken aloud changes us. When a student says, “There was a new girl today, so I think I made a new friend,” their focus pivots from what went wrong to what went right. When another says, “My bus driver played my favorite song this morning,” the small kindness gets magnified, turning an ordinary Wednesday into something worth remembering. As the Monroe district wrote in their post, “Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you’ll look back and realize they were the big things.”

In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, the Apostle Paul writes, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Not just thanks for the big miracles, but thanks in the hallway moments, the daily mercies, the friendships forming quietly, the muffins that turned out better than expected. Gratitude is not simply a feeling; it is a practice that reshapes the heart.
As we move through this week -- with Thanksgiving behind us and Advent now before us -- perhaps the church could borrow a page from a middle-school hallway in Ohio. What if we, too, set up “gratitude mics” in our homes, our work places, our communities? What if we made a point each day to say something good out loud -- not because life is perfect, but because God’s goodness is present even in the imperfect places?

Here is your invitation for the week ahead: Ask yourself each day, “What is one good thing God has done today?” Then say it aloud. Share it with someone. Give thanks for it.

This is how hope grows: one spoken blessing at a time.