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.
Progression Toward “Strongholds”
Be careful what you allow into your heart and mind: Progression Toward a "Stronghold": Impression---> Obsession---> Oppression------> Possession One seldom realizes she is in the grasp of something until after it's too late to easily and safely escape unscathed. Our culture is full of people and concepts vying for one's attention. If one has no "guard" over her heart, as called to do by the Bible, then she is wide open to what may appear to be harmless fascinations.....until they are intertwined into her heart and mind and then, when it has insinuated itself into her beliefs,...
The Importance of Consistency In Recovery
Just an observation......double-minded thinking reflected in memes about addiction: In one post: "Addicts are good people.....they are victims of a disease and they can't help it." In the very next post "Recovery ...is a choice, a decision, an action." In one post "....don't hurt them, don't judge them." In the very next post "If your addicted loved one is angry with you, you might be saving their life." Different recovery programs have different paradigms and approaches, but each program/addiction recovery professional should be consistent in the paradigm from which it operates. Then...
Family Peace
Sinful conduct separates us from fellowship with Holy God but never from the steadfast love of God. It may also separate us from fellowship with other people even though their love for us continues, as well. I’ve seen this over and over in life recovery counseling where families have had to set boundaries and limit or even cease fellowship with another member due to choices made that violate family values and standards of conduct. There was a time when Bill and I had to ask a teenager to leave our (and his) home due to destructive, violent and aggressive outbursts. We gave him options...
Servant-Leaders
A leader is appointed. A servant is anointed. The ideal is that one would seek to be a "servant-leader", as described by Bennett Sims in the book by that name and exemplified for us in the life of Jesus. The primary emphasis has to be on the best interest of others, not oneself. Saul was the people's choice after they insisted on having a king. God let them have their way. David was God's choice, anointed as a child. There were times that David succeeded in being a servant-leader. Other times he allowed his own desires/interests to lure him away from God's will.
When Time Is No More
"The present is the point at which time touches eternity." ⏤ C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters I think one of the sweetest, most precious memories of a time with the Lord was the moment He revealed to me that the instant I received Him into my heart was the moment I entered eternity. Time no longer operated as a constraint but simply as a parenthetical "marker" within the larger context of my forever-being..... It completely erased fear of dying..... as I have died to self already. I am already "seated in the heavenlies" and am at the right hand of Christ- called, surrendered and ready to...
Context
"Enough!" A word expressing a posture of satisfaction, contentment and peace? Or an exclamation expressing exasperation and wanting something about current circumstances to end? In which place do you find yourself today? I was talking to a friend about a couple of other words which, depending upon their context can have opposite meanings or implications. One was "boldness". In a biblical word study I discovered that in some contexts "boldness" implies arrogance, defiance, brashness, pridefulness, and a host of negative connotations. However, once the Apostles experienced Pentecost, their...
Conceal, Reveal, Deal, Heal
I was talking to a friend about some things she had shared with me and others about a family situation. I observed that there seemed to be a number of family "secrets" and adults trying to protect one another. All of this appears to be granting power and control to the person who knows the most secrets who also is controlling others by a show of emotional instability around whom everyone seems to be tippy toeing on eggshells. This family dynamic among the adults is having an adverse affect on a child who is not able to accurately interpret what's going on and is harboring her own secret...
Looking Back: A Day In Ministry
Looking back at a day in ministry at Titus 2.....from 2/26/2015 It was one of "those" days.....I spent most of my day in the car- dropping a lady at work, delivering another to a couple of doctor appointments, taking one to a housecleaning job, transporting someone else home from a stressful dental appointment, meeting a couple of gentlemen to sign some paperwork to document a community service obligation met, getting Titus 2 ministry checks signed by board members, delivering payments to utility providers, making bank deposits and handling other ministry business there, checking in at the...
It’s Not Just Sex ….
"A single day in a brothel and red light district can open your eyes to the frightening reality these women encounter. When you look into the eyes of a trafficking victim who has been robbed of her sense of self and self-respect, she will often tell you that you cannot help her because this is what she is now. And for me, as much as I long to offer her my grief, my outrage, my efforts for her restoration, they cannot give her what she really wants – a redemption, a justice, an identity beyond her experience. The greatest answer we have to give her is in God who can call her by name and...
Out Of Control
A line from "Homeland"....between two powerful spy-guys who were former cross-national colleagues and who now find themselves on opposite sides of the international political crevasse and both trying to leverage one another....."We are both old men. It's true. It is the curse of old men that we come to realize that, in the end, we have no control over anything." LOL! Any belief that anyone has that one can have any control in life is an illusion. Wisdom, it seems, arrives when one recognizes that reality and begins to walk humbly with God who does. Living daily into that reality is a...