I challenged myself to practice naming gifts each day this month – intently seeking the good, being thankful for everyday moments and taking the time to call them out.
Here is what I learned:
1) Being thankful is a decision – it requires resolve and commitment.
Just like you decide to cut sugar, dairy and grains for 30 days (you go, Whole30-ers!), to be a person who walks a life of gratitude, you must actually resolve to THINK in a new way.
It sounds arbitrary and easy to just “be thankful each day” but seeing it through, especially when you’re having a tough day requires so much mental strength and resolve. It’s your will over your emotions, and it’s powerful.
2) A heart of gratitude will renew your mind.
When you can hold the tension of knowing and dealing with the hard, while keeping the ability to still see and receive the good — you have learned to be content whatever the circumstance. 
You have practiced the act of taking your thoughts captive and seeing life through a lens of gratitude. And on the other end of that, there is always hope.
The act of speaking or writing out the good – naming the gift – allows you to receive it, to own it. To make it tangible and more real.
Do this over and over, and you’ve created a new, life-giving habit.
Over time, I saw that it is pretty hard to stay upset, critical, cynical etc. when you’re actively seeking out ‘the good’ in the happenings around you and the people in front of you and being thankful for it/them.
It doesn’t mean you’re immune to negativity, but your mind won’t stay in a state of ugly funk as you begin to find little grace moments in your day – and allow yourself the time to delight in them.
3) If you’re stuck, get out of your daily routine and see something new.
Lift your head, look up at the sky, look into someone’s eyes, look all around you. 
Step out of yourself for a few moments and I promise you, something beautiful will greet you.
4) Seeking what is good and being thankful causes you to be more present.
As someone who has a tendency to live in the future, in constant planning mode, this month allowed me to slow down each day with open hands to receive.
As a Christian, I keep thinking of how God referred to himself in the Bible as “The Great I Am. Not “The Great I Was” or “The Great I Will Be.” His presence and his glory exists where we are right now.
Experiencing that with full faith, awe and wonder means we also have to be present.
5) Finding something good and acknowledging the gift of it brought me joy the way one might feel opening an actual gift — and I believe that was always the intent.
So many times this month when I would “find” something good in my day and snap that photo or slow down to take in that moment — acknowledging those gifts brought me sincere delight and joy in the same way I felt opening a real life gift. (And I don’t say this lightly; ‘Gifts’ is my top love language of the Five Love Languages!)
Going into this, I read the December 1st gift prompt from Ann Voskamp’s December joy dare: ‘3 Gifts White’. And I remember thinking, Man, it’s going to be hard to pick honest and meaningful gifts to match these little planned out prompts.By the end of that day, I received 3 unexpected, personally meaningful ‘gifts – white’, the final gift that day being this abstract artwork, ‘FLAME KEEPER’ by artist Kati White Tatter. Painted for me, unknowingly.
My head hit the pillow that night in genuine awe of God’s goodness. I want more faith – more childlike faith and expectation that there is more and better for those that ask for eyes to see.
I keep thinking on this verse I wrote on the first page of my 2017 planner – a prayer written on my heart for the year:
Doesn’t finding wondrous things out of something as rigid-sounding as a “Law” sound pretty impossible?
But in the same Word that instructs us: “Thou shall not murder” and “Love your neighbor as you love yourself”, God also commands us to seek the “pure and lovely” and think on those things:
Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” – Philippians 4:8
It’s not a fluffy suggestion – God’s Word actually calls us to seek out all that is good and to be thankful.
And the result of this heart of gratitude, is a life of joy. And I believe this was always His heart for us – to know a joy and peace that is solid and unwavering, untouched by circumstance. To be able to see with wonder, all that is wonderful.
“Open my eyes to see, the wondrous things out of your law,” I prayed. And he showed me, faithfully.
The Ultimate Gift
This ‘name the gifts’ challenge was something birthed out of my personal faith and walk with God. And the greatest result for me is a closer relationship with God, a greater awareness of His presence and His goodness — and a deeper understanding of his Word.
This challenge has prepared my heart for authentic and reverent worship this Christmas season. It’s caused me to slow down and to contemplate the gift of God with us in the person of Jesus Christ. That hope and salvation came from a baby born in a barn.
My pastor recently wrote to our congregation about the upcoming Christmas Eve service at Monterey Church: “Come prepared to worship and to hear a short special message on the “Ultimate Christmas Gift”.
Really? I laughed a little to myself as I’ve been intently naming gifts all month just to be able to end it with such a timely message as that: “The Ultimate Gift.” So many coincidences or as I like to call them, winks from God.
Thanks for reading about my gratitude journey this month. It’s really my entire heart behind this blog.
Wishing you and yours a joy-filled, happy Christmas.
Thanh
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