Choose Joy

I got the design idea from Sara.  She and my friend Phyllis had the same disease:  ankylosing spondylosis.  Phyllis died on December 31, 2010 and Sara died on September 24, 2011.

Phyllis died a very unhappy, angry, depressed woman.  I really did love her.  She and I hit it off immediately when we met when she was a temp at my office.  She and I were soul sisters.  She was a beautiful woman, both inside and out.  I admit that she had a very hard life.  She was rejected by her family for leaving their Jehovah’s Witness beliefs and becoming a Christian.  She had husbands who were not very kind.  Ultimately, I had her removed from her husband’s care and she was moved to Hospice due to her chronic, uncontrolled pain.  Five months after she entered Hospice care, she died.  She stopped eating two months before she died.  She wished for and longed for death in life.

I got to know Sara by her blog.  I met her in her last post or two before she became too sick to blog.  Sara was full of life even in her dying days.  Her life phrase was “Choose Joy”.  After she died, her friends got together a bunch of her doodles and made tattoo templates for her readers.  I chose mine as soon as I saw it.  I just didn’t have an opportunity to get it until today.

My 18 year old son and only child Tim wanted a tattoo for his birthday.  He had a great one planned.  It was the symbol for the Voice of the Martyrs with the words “Jesus Freak” surrounding it.  It was a great time for mother and son to bond and get tattoos together.  I’m excited to share.  My tattoo is the one above and I had it done on the inside of my right forearm.  Tim’s tattoo is on his right shoulder and is pictured below:

Grace Like an Avalanche

Hillsong United – Like An Avalanche

Verse 1

Beautiful God
Laying Your majesty aside
You reached out in love to show me life
Lifted from darkness into light
Oh

Verse 2

King for a slave
Trading Your righteousness for shame
Despite all my pride and foolish ways
Caught in Your infinite embrace
Oh

Chorus 1

And I find myself here on my knees again
Caught up in grace like an avalanche
Nothing compares to this love love love
Burning in my heart

Verse 3

Saviour and Friend
Breathing Your life into my heart
Your word is the lamp unto my path
Forever I’m humbled by Your love
Oh

Bridge

Take my life
Take all that I am
With all that I am I will love You
Take my heart
Take all that I have
Jesus how I adore You

Chorus 2

And I find myself here on my knees again
Caught up in grace like an avalanche
Nothing compare to this love love love

[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/h/hillsong_united/like_an_avalanche.html ]

Thankful for a Big Rear by Teasi Cannon – a Guest Post

Please welcome Teasi Cannon, the author of My Big Bottom Blessing:  How Hating My Body Led to Loving My Life.  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.

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.

Book Review: My Big Bottom Blessing by Teasi Cannon

From this moment on you will have a new name.  You are never to call yourself a fat Christian woman again.  From here on out, you are ever and only…My Beloved. – Father God

I had the opportunity to review  My Big Bottom Blessing:  How Hating My Body Led to Loving My Life by Teasi Cannon and published by Worthy Publishing.  (Hint, hint; on 5/24/2012 you can see a post by Teasi right here on Uncompromising!)  This book is about Teasi’s struggle with weight and body image beginning with some pretty incredible hurts.

I really appreciated that this was Teasi’s story, her struggles and pain, and what, ultimately made a difference for her.  The book doesn’t come across as a self-help book.  The best part of reviewing My Big Bottom Blessing was that it was something that I needed to hear from someone with the same struggles as me.

The book is great for a small group study or for individual reading.  It was written well and a very easy read.  Each chapter is another part of Teasi’s story.  Sometimes she has conversations with characters, who cause her stinkin’ thinkin’.  She is very vulnerable as she tells very painful stories from her life.

At the end of each chapter is a prayer, questions for the reader to answer about what was discussed in the chapter, a pep talk, and a forward focus word with corresponding Bible promises.  I like the fact that each Bible verse is written out so that I didn’t have to find each one.

What touched me the most was when Teasi spoke of her encounter with evangelist Jack Frost.  Specifically, when Frost said, “It doesn’t matter if you feel it or not.  The truth is still the truth.”  It helped me work out something that wasn’t even related to the book.

Teasi used an analogy that like Saul, who persecuted Jesus’ followers, we persecute God with our warped self-image.  We call God a liar when He tells us we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14) and we speak of our fat thighs, flabby arms, and poor self-esteem.

What really came across was that we need to stop trying to get our self-image and self-worth from the media machine and start looking to the Father and what He says about us.  We are all People of the Second Chance, so we need to stop wallowing in bondage and start living life as our loving Papa God created us to live.

Leave one comment below and I’ll choose a commenter on 5/23/2012 at 4 PM (Eastern Time) to receive a copy of My Big Bottom Blessing:  How Hating My Body Led to Loving My Life.

Read Chapter 1 of My Big Bottom Blessing by clicking on the title.

God’s Riches Are For Everyone

2 Corinthians 12:8-9