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.
On Preaching
From CBB. 5/16/15 Tomorrow I have the joy of preaching in the Chapel at Transmitter at 11:00 a.m. on The Way Out of Solitude….from Exodus 33. Next Sunday I will also preach at 3:00pm at Mathison Retirement Center, the regularly assigned fourth Sunday for me. I am grateful for the opportunity to preach, though I know that I am not called by God to do it every week as my primary act of service in ministry. Doing so occasionally, however, sharpens my time with the Lord, as he guides and instructs me, and broadens my service to include some things that are not naturally as comfortable or easy...
Not So Impossible
FROM 5/16/2020. CBB…… Looking at the actual demographics of those most affected by this pandemic I just have two words for where this is headed……..(clear them out before they become a burden on everyone else…..it’s your duty to society….. ) Soylent Green The New Yorker (SG was set in New York) review was negative, writing, "This pompously prophetic thing of a film hasn't a brain in its beanbag. Where is democracy? Where is the popular vote? Where is women's lib? Where are the uprising poor, who would have suspected what was happening in a moment?" Hmmmmm…. some are asking the same questions...
Work Your Land
Sarah Westfall writes a newsletter online called The Shelf….. Some days it resonates deeply in my soul…. like this piece called "Work Your Land". On March 20, 1997 the Lord called my attention to a beautiful freshly plowed field and said, "This is you." It led me to 1 Corinthians 3:9: "For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building." I have been through many seasons with God and am now in another season….. He is the One Who Tills and Plows…. I labor alongside Him to bring a harvest, according to His desires. CBB 5/16/22 "A few years ago, friends gifted us a blue coffee...
Lenten 2026 Journey to Closure on Transitions
I attended a Pastors Retreat at Black Mountain's Ridgecrest Retreat in February 2026. The leader of Seedbed's pastoral care team, Dan Wilt, sent out a notice to those of us who attended and offered a 1:1 time to review where we are post-retreat, to counsel and pray after this season since those few days. Dan asked, "How is your soul?" That is a question for many of us as we meet with our band sisters or brothers weekly. But in the context of a retreat, it is deeper than the events, emotions, and experiences of the previous week. I appreciate the invitation to a one-on-one, but I feel like 30...
Music and Memories.
frm 9/14/20…… came across this 5/13/26 as I sat at intermission of a Chicago concert in Montgomery. Bill loved their music.We had seen them in Auburn in 1975. Blast from the past…. Withba side dish ofvgruef. For a skinny minute, as I reflected on my day, I thought I had confined my tears to those few minutes right after I woke up and now just before I turn in…. and then I remembered I cried when I talked to the supplemental health insurance company for the third time in two weeks trying to get the straight and skinny on when they would stop deducting Bill’s premium from the bank account and...
Releasing
Good word for today from a new friend, Dottie Wilson…. as I head to hospital in Bham for a biopsy of my thyroid, I'm comfortable and at peace. I know God's goodness, sovereignty, presence, and personal affection for me. It's a worthy prayer for any day, any circumstance. "Whatever circumstance, may be confronting you today, let go of needing to know why and learn to rely on Gods goodness, His sovereignty, His good and perfect plan. Sometimes God gives us opportunities to come to a deeper level of trust in him. When we rely on his sovereignty instead of our own strength, a deeper level of...
Deep Diving In Jeremiah 29:11
Humble House Mother’s Day Retreat 5/8-10/2026. Friday night devotional. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11). This verse provides the theme for this weekend’s retreat and affirms what you have been learning and experiencing about God during the months since you first came toHumble House. Surely, God has provided well and you all are prospering and have a renewed sense of hope and a vision for the future. I want...
Moving Boulders
Since Cloud and Townsend used imagery of each person carrying her own knapsack as a metaphor for personal responsibility, I have always added that, when a boulder falls into the path, ot often takes rallying others to help move it off the path. Single moms often have to make hard choices on a daily basis about prioritizing expenditures. Housing, food, children’s school needs, clothing, gas, etc. Car maintenance and repairs often go to the bottom of the list until they can’t. If they are fortunate enough to own a car, when the car is not operational, neither is their life. Work missed, school...
Titus 2 Report April 2026
April 2026 Titus 2 Report -Financial assistance to family of FL DOC inmate, (Titus former student), to facilitate communication with family during incarceration. ( 4/1) -Completed Meals on Wheels delivery (to 14 individuals in 11 homes) on monthly route. (4/1) -Met with Saturday morning widows’ support group at Lorraine’s Bake Shop. -Gifted monthly $25 to Lorraine’s Bake Shop “pay it forward” fund to assist indigent downtown neighbors who may need a coffee/snack break, especially during inclement weather days. (4/1) -Participated as a reader for Tenebrae service at CMC-Montgomery on Good...
Free, At Last
Looking back on the day I was rewarded for years of travailing prayer on behalf of the congregation that nurtured me for 30+ years. The changing of the sign to reflect the outcome of a hard fought battle by many was a day of gratitude and joy.,From 5/7/23 In February 2014 I had my first clue that my joyful years of pursuing deacon ordination within The UMC was not going to become reality as I sat in the Board of Ordained Ministry interview and silently asked God, "What IS this that is happening?? It is so contentious and adversarial!!" God immediately answered me, "This is not about you. It...