Do yourself a favor and get to know Teasi Cannon. The truth is I don’t know her that well except for a FB message here and there. Remember when I said you don’t have to share coffee and bagels to consider someone a friend? Still true!
Teasi speaks frequently at the women’s Bible study at my church and she spoke on that dreaded women’s retreat (see Women, Chocolate and Kleenex: Why Retreats Scare Me). She is the real deal; I would never waste your time with someone that wasn’t. I love how she adds just the right amount of humor as she takes you down the road of pain she traveled for years. She isn’t afraid to laugh with you, only to cry with you. And when beautiful people are changing lives for the better, we all need to know about it.
One of the beautiful things about Teasi is that she isn’t afraid to talk about what we’ve all felt in some way or another—that our appearance determines our value. She tells about reaching her lowest only to have her perception of God change. Now her goal is to share her story so that people can see the goodness of God in her, (and in you), despite what the media or scale says!
There is great beauty to be found in broken people, now healed, and who aren’t afraid to share their story.
Now that she has had her first book published, I’m honored that she would contribute to my blog. My Big Bottom Blessing: How Hating My Body Led to Loving My Life should be on your bookshelf. So go ahead…look her up at www.TeasiCannon.com and then head over to Barnes and Noble or Amazon.com and buy a copy today.
Maybe you’re looking for a speaker for your next women’s event or retreat. Teasi has much to share and I know she woudn’t disappoint if you invited her to your church! (She didn’t ask me to put that either.)
I hope that on this Beautiful Thursday you can look in the mirror and see the beautiful person God created you to be…just like you are. If that’s too difficult to do, then My Big Bottom Blessing can help.
Thank you, Teasi, for sharing your beautiful story with us today.
____________________________________________________________________
Thankful for a Big Rear by Teasi Cannon
One day not long ago I was sweeping my kitchen floor in the near trance-like state of La La Land, when I was jolted to my senses by the precious voice of my 4-year-old nephew saying, “Aunt Teasi, you have a vahwee (very) big butt.”
I set my broom aside, smoothed my shirt, and calmly turned to face him. Bright-eyed and curly-haired, he stood – completely oblivious to the fact that he had said the words no woman ever wants to hear. And then I let him have it. I bent down, coming only inches away from his little round face, and said, “Why…thank you!” Then I smiled big, stood to grab my broom, and returned unscathed to the task at hand.
A few years ago those innocently spoken words would have completely obliterated me, and rather than a thank you, might have actually incited an immature come-back such as: “Oh, yeah? Well, you’re short and you talk funny.”
But now, to the glory of God, moments like that are reminders to me that the miraculous has happened: I no longer hate my body (especially my back side); in fact, it has become one of the biggest blessings in my life.
Like most women (really every woman I’ve ever met), I lived years literally disgusted with what I saw in the mirror. The territory between my ears felt like nothing short of a war zone, with battles being fought everywhere: the bathroom, the grocery store, the bedroom, even church. I could never silence the ambush-ready community of inner critics (those hurtful thoughts we all think) that called my head home. And I missed out on so much: parties I refused to attend because my pants were too tight, dates with my husband because of a few gained pounds, quality time with my kids. I know I’m not alone in this.
We women have been lied to for years. We’ve been told that our value – our very right to be seen and celebrated – is determined by our waist-to-hip ratio or the proportions of our facial features, and that’s just not true. Our value is determined by the only One who really knows it: our God.
After hitting my head hard on the floor of my personal pit of despair, I slowly began my journey toward believing that. One inch at a time of healing, truth, and righteous anger led me to a life-saving realization: All those years I was desperate to change how I looked, God was desperate to change how I see. And He did.
Truth is, if God can make a prostitute the great grandmother of the Messiah, turn water into wine, and make blind men see; don’t you think He can turn a big bottom – or a big nose – or bird-thin legs – or whatever it is you hate – into a blessing? He did it for me, and I’m so ridiculously happy about the journey that I wrote a book about it.
