Guest Post: Thankful for a Big Rear by Teasi Cannon

A big, big, welcome to author Teasi Cannon!

Take it away, guurrl!

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.  

About Teasi:

Teasi Cannon Teasi (pronounced Tee See) is married to her best friend, Bill Cannon, and they have three awesome children: Carli, Ben, and Sam. Teasi has a master’s degree in pastoral counseling from Liberty Theological Seminary, and is a sought-after speaker who loves to help women remember who they are in Christ.

Check out Teasi's book & our review of it below!

My Big Bottom Blessing

How Hating My Body Led to Loving My Life

Teasi Cannon

Genre: Non Fiction/Religious

Published: May 8, 2012

Publisher: Worthy Publishing

ISBN: 1617950769

Our Review!

Book Trailer!

Review: My Big Bottom Blessing by Teasi Cannon

My Big Bottom Blessing

How Hating My Body Led to Loving My Life

Teasi Cannon
Genre: Non Fiction/Religious

Published: May 8, 2012

Publisher: Worthy Publishing

ISBN: 1617950769

Description:

The media feeds us distorted images of beauty and what an "ideal woman" should look like. Weight loss is nearly a $55 billion a year business. Ninety percent of high school girls diet regularly, even though only 10 to 15 percent would be considered truly overweight. In My Big Bottom Blessing, author Teasi Cannon speaks from personal experience, offering a way out of distorted body images and the pain of self-rejection. She says, "My obsession with fat and failure robbed me of a lot of the good in my life. God's definition of beauty has far more to do with what's going on inside of us than what's skin deep. I have been miraculously set free from the lie that being thin equals being beautiful."

My Big Bottom Blessing offers us Teasi's story—and real-life solutions for the millions of young women who struggle with poor self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy and rejection. She shows that God loves the whole person unconditionally and that whatever it is that you despise most about yourself (it doesn’t have to be weight) can become the catalyst for serious life change. From a search for self-acceptance to finding true love and contentment just as we are, Teasi proves that emotional pain can be healed and confidence found in knowing that authentic beauty comes in all shapes and sizes.

My Big Bottom Blessing is a joyful, compassionate, and wise guide from someone who knows the power of exchanging the way we look with a new way of seeing.

Review:

Rating:

This book by Teasi Cannon is more than a book about overcoming self image issues, its about truly becoming a daughter of The King.

I absolutely love the way that this book is written. Not preachy, not impersonal, like your typical self help book. It was like sitting down and talking with a friend most of the time ( you know, those friends who give it to ya straight). I think this was a great way to write it because a lot of people can relate and be engaged. If this book was more preachy, then I think that I would have skimmed right through this book without skipping a beat, but the writing style pulled me in instead. 

I also love how real this book is. In the book the author talks about hearing the voices of  "trainer" and other internal voices. I think that we've all had those thoughts or "voices" at some time or another. Its something that we all deal with, but we hardly ever talk about. 

I think that the authors transperancy with her life, and her willingness to talk about different womens issues, and issues with people in general, really made this book for me. There are a lot of truths to be found in this book, for sure.

I also loved how she didnt just talk about her life, etc. She backed everything she was saying with scripture, so you could actually see that the Bible lines up with what she's saying.

The only thing that slightly annoyed me with this book, was the little workbook like pages at the end of chapters. Honestly, I thought that you made the connections to your own life as she was telling the stories just fine without the workbook pages. It seemed like that was trying a bit too hard. But that is literally my only qualm with this book.

It was great! I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to know more about truly becoming a daughter of God, or someone who has self esteem or body image issues, but I would also recommend it to just about any christian woman out there. There are a lot of truths to be found in this book, whether you are having self esteem issues or not.

Stay Tuned for a chance to win your own copy of this book!

:D

In the meantime, enjoy this First Chapter Preview of My Big Bottom Blessing!!

*The Book Blogging Beauties received a copy of this book from Worthy Publishing in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are that of the reviewer. We were not compensated for this review.