Give Thanks With a Grateful Heart

Life is amazing. And then it’s awful. And then it’s amazing again. And in between the amazing and the awful it’s ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary. That’s just living heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life. And it’s breathtakingly beautiful! – L.R. Knost

As I sit here writing on this beautiful Thanksgiving 2015 morning, I am in awe of where my life is and how blessed I truly am. Is my life where I thought it would be at this day in time? Absolutely not. I may not have everything that my heart wants and desires just yet, but I am thankful for what I do have. I have my daily struggles and my once-in-a while breakdowns for dreams that haven’t been fulfilled and questions as to why. But God far surpasses my very own deepest desires, and I trust that he will take care of the rest. My family has always had a tradition of going around the table and each person voicing what we are thankful for. Through tears and laughter, it has become one of my favorite memories of Thanksgiving. I do my own now as well. I think it’s important to take a moment to dig deep and search for the very things, big and small, that we have been blessed with throughout the year, blessings that we don’t deserve. So here it goes…

*First and foremost, I’m thankful that I have a Father in heaven who loves me beyond my wildest imagination and despite how often I fail, knowing that his love never will. I am thankful for my church where I get to meet with him and thankful for the sense of his presence that I get when I am there. I wouldn’t miss my Sunday mornings for the world. I am thankful to have my safe haven where I leave all of my troubles and bring all of my praises. I am beyond grateful also for the group of wonderful girls that I get to meet and fellowship with every single week. They are my blessing and they don’t even know it. Funny how a group of girls can come together not knowing a single soul and end up being life long friends. True blessings!

*I am thankful for My family… God knew exactly what I would need when it came to the roller coaster of life and it was them. They are my world and my stronghold and I would be lost without them. I’ve had experience of the people closest to me without a family, and I never, for one day, want to ever take my family for granted. I am thankful for cousins who God supplied and the willing choice to always be best friends. I am thankful to have my grandparents who are physically and heartily sitting at the dining table celebrating family with us. I’m thankful for a mom who raised me to be a Godly woman with an example compared to no other. She has a heart of Gold and has loved me when some days I didn’t even deserve her. I am thankful for a step dad who chose me when he didn’t have to. He has been my rock and my protector since the day he walked into my life. He has been my true example of a Godly man with a pure sense of gentleness and integrity. I am thankful for brothers who are getting life, who are taking it by the horns and embracing it like they never have before. It’s not what we have in life, but who we have in our lives that matter.

* I am thankful for the relationships that I have embraced this year both new and old. I am thankful for the ones who have come in and walked out and I am thankful for the ones who will be there forever. I am thankful for the difficult ones who have allowed me to learn so much about myself and am thankful for the ones who loved me day in and day out so selflessly. I am thankful that the lord has allowed me to keep such a passion for the people I love most despite any messes and am thankful for the blessings that have come out of each and everyone of them.

* I am thankful for the opportunity and chance to go to Ecuador this summer. This week of missions forever changed me and showed me what true Thanksgiving is. This trip humbled my heart and made my world feel so minuscule to the bigger picture. This trip showed me a love that I had not yet felt and taught me how to love with a deeper capacity. This trip made me thankful for every little thing that we take for granted in the states. My dirty feet after working in a town for hours on end didn’t seem to bother me as much and the cold showers became normal because I was simply thankful to have a shower. I’m thankful for the lessons that God showed me there and the beauty of letting go, and letting God. I am thankful to have seen and felt something that will never allow my heart to feel the same way that it was before. I am thankful that God ripped my heart wide open and healed it where it needed to be healed by only him.

*I am thankful for other travels that I have encountered this year. Another year of travel and experience has expanded and stretched my soul to places inside that I had no idea existed. I am thankful for a state called Colorado where I feel my heart the most. I am thankful to see your countless sights of beauty in a place like this. I am thankful for the courage to make the decision to make my move out to Colorado next year. Without travel, I would never know what such beauty looked like nor would I be able to comprehend the depth of my mind and soul.

*I am thankful for another great year of work. God has blessed me clearly with some of the best clients in the world. People who started out as clients and will hold a forever place in my heart. God placed some very divine clients in my life who have forever changed me and who supplied an everlasting sense of peace to my soul.

*I am thankful for my most adorable, genuinely loving, hilarious, furry children of completely different characteristics. For having the happiest faces with wagging back ends to come home to everyday. For days that absolutely sucked, they made it all better. I know I won’t have them forever, so for now I will love them like crazy and give thanks everyday for their presence.

*I am thankful for living on the coast of Georgia and the many days by the sea this summer that made me feel so tiny, humble, and inspired. It always calms my restless soul. To feel the sun shining down and to be in a complete sense of awe at what lays at my feet. It always makes me feel small, but free as well.

* I am thankful for some of the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets this year. I love to see colors in the sky that aren’t usually there. Maybe they were there the whole time, or maybe I just took the extra time to notice his artwork.

* I am thankful for Spotify. Need I say more.

* I am thankful for the endless amount of new and fabulous restaurants that I have had the privilege of experiencing. Being a foodie, this makes me one happy girl. Nothing brings people together like good food!

* I am thankful for a knee injury that has transferred my priorities back to where they needed to be. I can thank God for this one, for bringing the good out of the bad. I must confess that I had gotten to an obsession level with the physicality of exercise and fitness. I exercised way too much and didn’t get near enough calories to sustain a healthy weight or lifestyle. I started to exercise for the wrong reasons to an obsession point. God allowed an injury that wouldn’t break me or my career but would force me to realign where my focus should truly be. He forced me to slow down in the mornings and to love the very body that he made for me no matter if I had run 5 miles and lifted for an hour that day or not. I love my sweet, quiet mornings now when the amber sun shines through my windows while enjoying the intimate time with him and reflecting on life. There couldn’t be a better way to start each day.

*I am thankful for the privilege of meeting a new friend that goes by the name of Betty. What started out as her first haircut has evolved into a sweet friendship. She has become such a special woman in my life. She’s in her late 80’s and has very few people in her everyday life. Going to visit her has taught me to slow down and enjoy sweet conversation. It has taught me to be selfless because no matter how crazy my life is with not even a second for myself, I still owe my life to take care of others. It has taught me how important one little phone call can be. It has also expanded my knowledge on cooking desserts because my sweet Betty loves desserts and I love to watch her face light up when I walk through her door with a surprise for her!

I could go on for hours on end writing about all of the little and big things that I am thankful for. It’s endless, and I have discovered the older I have gotten, the realizations of my blessings are more and more powerful. I guess through life you live and you learn and you see tragedy all around you and you experience hardships and that makes your blessings stand out that much stronger. It makes you realize, there is ALWAYS something to be thankful for. Fill your heart with what’s important and be done with the rest!

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The McLeod's

Welcome to our blog! We’re glad you stopped by and we hope you come back and visit. We want you to be a part of our journey! We are John and Chelsea McLeod. Best friends who are embracing the most precious gift of marriage and life. On the way to be full time missionaries and currently living a life mentoring those broken by addiction from both sides of the pain- loved ones and those struggling with addiction. Here you will find our recorded histories of life, love, struggles, and the journeys that encompass our wanderlust spirits all with an unfailing love for God and His ever so perfect redemption and grace over our lives. Here lies a safe place where our minds wander off into the deepest places with documentation to never be erased. We don’t want our memories to fall between the cracks somewhere, so we write. We don’t want to forget how far God has brought us, so we make records that will prayerfully live on for generations and give others hope who have lost theirs. We met in the most divine of appointments thousands of miles apart that only God could orchestrate. Had our first date watching a fiery sunset go down over the Georgia coast, and ultimately fell in love over kindred spirits that beat for where and what God passionately filled our hearts with. Hindsight, and years later, we can see that God had big plans all along that we couldn’t see. Through our broken pasts, He was preparing us for each other and a future of redemption and testimony. {{{{Everyone has a story and this is ours:}}}}} He’s a Georgia boy, she’s a Carolina girl. ----Hi, I’m Chelsea!---- I’m a native Carolina girl who loves to explore anywhere I’ve never been. An old soul and an extroverted-introvert with a deep heart that overflows with passion and a hunger for God to use me to change this world for the better. Mysterious and meek to the eye, and particularly passionate for the very things that set my heart on fire, especially the things and people that my heart beats for. I get filled up in the untouched outdoors where I can always see and feel His splendor. I am a Master cosmetologist by trade with a BA in Social Work and Counseling. These which intermix daily. I absolutely love the career that God has placed me in and daily, it allows me to love on people all around me. If I can make one person smile a day, my heart holds a fullness that keeps me coming back for more. I believe in forgiveness and miracles because I’ve witnessed them both. I don’t want my life to be about what I accomplished but what God accomplished through me. To me, I’ve learned that in life there is good and bad, right and wrong, excuses and no excuses. But alongside of these very things is engulfed with a ton of grace, growth, and redemption. I don’t ever want to pay the cost of not following my heart, by spending the rest of my life wishing I had. ----Hi, I’m John!---- I’m a born and bred Georgia boy where my blood runs strong with salt water. I was born and raised on the coast where everything I did was engulfed with water and the outdoors. I’m a bold soul with a gentle spirit who loves to help others in any way that I can to believe in themselves and God’s plan over their lives. By trade I hold the title of professional hunter and fisher with a 100 ton captain’s license. What started in Georgia took me out to Alaska where I found my career there, then south Florida and the open blue water. I’ve seen a lot and experienced a lot of God’s beauty and I will be forever grateful for that. Today I’ve taken on the title of “Fisher of men.” After enduring a wearisome season of addiction, God called me to use my pain to help others in addiction ministry and it has become one of the greatest joys of my life. It’s what I live for in showing people they can overcome something that most think they can’t. Offering hope where there is none. Testifying that something they always thought they would be, is only a season that God is ready and wants to use. Where Chelsea serves alongside me pouring into the loved ones. It’s where my passion is, it’s where we love to help others find freedom the same way we did. Today, Chelsea and I are grateful for our struggles because we know that what the enemy meant for evil, God used for good. Here we will write and share. Not to glorify us, but to glorify Him and what He is doing in our lives. The magnificent ways that He is moving and the unfathomable circumstances that He has and will bless us with. All glory goes to Him. We hope you enjoy!!

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