About the Author
Cathy Boyd Byrd invites others to join her in considering topics of interest to those on the Christian spiritual journey…..discipleship, spirituality, mental health, Christian growth, and Bible study. Cathy enjoys working with others as they transition from emotional emergency and brokenness to spiritual emergence and abundant living! Many of the topics about which Cathy writes are interrelated as experienced in her own life and in the lives of those with whom she works in counseling, teaching, and case management, and in friendships. She believes that sharing our journey of Christian growth and spirituality helps us know God and ourselves better and connects us with others!
Cathy is a Christian Educator and Life Recovery Counselor, and an ordained deacon through Christian Leaders Institute. She serves as Community Outreach MInister at Lynn Haven United Methodist Church. She is a student (disciple) of the Holy Spirit and shares with her students (disciples) the things the Lord teaches her through Bible study and contemplation, incorporating experiences interpreted through the Word, cherished traditions of her faith, and reasoning that comes from seeking the mind of Christ in accountable community. She was widowed in August 2020 after 48 years of marriage to Bill Byrd, is mother of 2 and grandmother of 5. Her journey of faith has been lifelong and continues to be an adventure with the trailblazer and guide, Jesus Christ!
Cathy is the founder and program manager for a Christian women’s residential life recovery program, Titus 2 Partnership, Inc.(www.titus2.life) in Panama City, Florida.
Losing One’s Mind For the Cause of Christ
I’ve been mulling over JD’ Walt’s comments in the seedbed Wake Up Call on YouTube 10/27/25 that if we feel burdened and joyless in Christian life, we aren’t doing it right. Even more-so, I think that applies to those in vocational ministry. In 2002, the year I started working in Christian education at my church, two friends and I started a comedy music trio to entertain at Emmaus Walks in our conference (“altar”egos seen tuning up in photo below, L to R: Cricket-tenor, Eula Lee-soprano and Maybelline-alto.) We worked walks at least 3-6 times a year from 2002-2016 or so, then we turned our...
“So That You Won’t Fall Away”
“If you are in a “full of sorrow, kind of moment right now,”know that sorrow is not the end of your story. John 16:20 is a reminder to stay faithful. God will turn your tears of sadness into tears of joy. A lasting and permanent kind of joy, a joy that the world cannot take away. God knows that you are tired. He knows you are doing your best. He sees you and He sees that you are not giving up. Remember, when life feels overwhelming, God’s peace is greater than your struggles. His love will carry you through every storm.” (Dottie Wilson’s text devo is the starto gnpl e for my reflection this...
Assurance of Salvation
Assurance…. A hallmark doctrine of Methodism….. yet do we really “get it?” Assurance is not “all about the heart”….. it’s only about the heart after one’s heart has been circumcised and healed by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit operating by invitation to Jesus to take control of one’s life…… Hebrews 6:19 (AMP) “This hope [this confident assurance] we have as an anchor of the soul [it cannot slip and it cannot break down under whatever pressure bears upon it]—a safe and steadfast hope that enters within the veil [of the heavenly temple, that most Holy Place in which the very presence...
Doing Good Feels Good
I’ve been pondering “goodness” recently as part of exploring the topic in the Fruit of the Spirit. This article from October 14,2023, discusses hedonism vs. eudaemonism. Excerpted from an article by Matthew Little, "Hedonism Vs. True Happiness" in Epoch Times "There are two key kinds of happiness, and while our society is gorging on one, it is starving for the other. "Hedonic happiness (derived from the Greek word ‘hedone,’ meaning ‘pleasure’) refers to the feelings we get from creature comforts. It’s the thrill that comes with buying new shoes or eating a decadent dessert. Hedonic is...
God Can Have Regrets?
I love it when women I’ve mentored in the past are thinking deeply and engaging with God’s Word. One texted to ask,“I’m reading a book on obedience , it references, Genesis Six . How can the Lord have regret?” My reply:“God is a person, with emotions…. Our capacity for emotional responses is part of His image in us. God can know that something is going to happen and yet, even when it actually plays out in a worst case scenario of yielding to evil and painful consequences result to many people, God knows that He has to impose discipline or set boundaries against people He loves but with whom...
Hidden Health Risks Revealed
Wow! Just WOW! I happened up on an article about a man who suffered “erethism”, from effects of mercury poisoning, from removal of mercury amalgam dental fillings. Mercury is a heavy metal that’s found in the earth’s crust. It’s toxic to people, so even low levels of exposure can cause health problems. Prolonged exposure can lead to chronic mercury poisoning. This may be called mad hatter disease or mad hatter syndrome. This led me on a deeper dive about the subject based on my own experience, too! “Mad hatter disease causes severe neurological effects known as erethism. It can lead to...
Screen Fasting
David Foster Wallace: “In his 1992 essay “E Unibus Pluram,” he calls this a “new vision of the USA as an atomized mass of self-conscious watchers and appearers.” Our Shared Reality Is About to Self-Destruct Instead of participating in a “community of relationships,” he said, we become locked into “networks of strangers connected by self-interest and contest and image.” He believed this loneliness led to widespread depression—a condition with which he suffered intensely.Wallace also understood how, though screen entertainments helped him escape from depression, they simultaneously led to even...
God of All Comfort
“God is speaking to the prophet Jeremiah and through him, to all people when He says, “Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know,” Jeremiah 33:3. The struggles that lead you closer to God are worth more than any comfort that distances you from Him. The testing of your faith produces perseverance, James 1:2-3. Perseverance is a steadfast and enduring commitment to faith and righteousness, despite difficulties, suffering, and opposition. It is not just human effort, but a work of the Holy Spirit that empowers you to endure trials and develop...
“Well done, good and faithful servant:” A Reflection On Ripening Fruit
Since 1988 I have been teaching, leading groups, and discipling women toward Christian transformational living and spiritual maturity in areas that we all experience as part of the human condition--- brokenness, self- interest based moral ethic, and having lost one’s intimate connection with God. The issue of personal growth in spiritual maturity as people seek change has continued to evolve in my teaching over the decades. God has been speaking in my heart and mind about the role of the fruit of the Spirit described in Galatians 5. This scripture is a portrait of an...
The Downside of Being “Kind”
“My therapist told me something that hit harder than I expected: She said: “People-pleasing isn’t really about pleasing others. It’s about controlling their perception of you.” And then she looked at me and said: “It’s what happens when fear starts driving—fear of rejection, fear of disapproval, fear of being too much.” You start performing instead of living. You start shrinking parts of yourself to fit into rooms that never had space for your truth. You call it kindness, but deep down… it’s survival. Because you learned early that love had rules. That being yourself came with...