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.
Woundedness to Brokenness to Kingdom of God
When we give our woundedness over to God willingly and completely, it is transformed into a beautiful sacrifice that He receives with tender compassion, converts to refining brokenness and poverty of spirit that He loves and redeems and uses to enfold us into the Kingdom of God that we may come to know the depth, width, height, and length of His love. #Godredeems
Emotional Literacy Training Material for Titus 2
Feelings Wheel link (at bottom of document) and emotional literacy materials from Titus 2 women's ministry residential program Emotional Literacy- Knowing and Managing Our Emotions (Sept. 2017) Jesus sets an example for us of healthy emotional life. Scripture portrays Jesus as one who had intense, raw, emotional experiences. He was able to express his emotions with unashamed, unembarrassed freedom. He did not repress or project his feelings onto others. Instead, we read of Jesus responsibly experiencing the full range of human emotion throughout his earthly ministry. In...
Godly Humanity
A prayer partner friend and I find that God often has us on parallel tracks..... What He is speaking to her through her activities and contacts, He is also speaking to me through mine... This is part of a devotional she shared yesterday. I had been reflecting on the humanity of Christ and the fact that He incarnated as a man in order to show us how to be holy as He is holy...We are where we are because God wants to put godliness on display there through us for others to see.
Name of God
Beautiful...... Rob Bell had a Nooma Video called "Breathe" that illustrated this.. "There was a moment when Moses had the nerve to ask God what his name is. God was gracious enough to answer, and the name he gave is recorded in the original Hebrew as YHWH. Over time we’ve arbitrarily added an “a” and an “e” in there to get YaHWeH, presumably because we have a preference for vowels. But scholars and rabis have noted that the letters YHWH represent breathing sounds, or aspirated consonants. When pronounced without intervening vowels, it actually sounds like breathing. YH (inhale): WH...
Motherisms
My Mother had a saying.... a demand of us.... that she used with us children all my young life: "Keep your head up even if your tail is dragging the ground." My veterinary office, North Bay Animal Hospital, has this sign outside since COVID... The text in blue at the bottom makes me smile... My friend Colleen and her beautiful English Black Lab Leader Dog companion, Bunker, are here for his first visit since moving here from Michigan. We love our North Bay veterinary providers and staff!
Transcending Sorrows With Christ
Jesus Christ was a man of sorrows, yet the bearer of joy to a weary world. Being in ministry reveals a small insight into the depth of His sorrow, not just on the cross but looking daily into the eyes and hearts of dead souls that don't even know they are dead....and the miracle of His overcoming it all through resurrection that gives us the confidence that, in Him, we can also rise above the sorrows and spiritual death and soul sickness of this realm even while still in the body. We don't have to wait to be released from the bonds of the body to be free and know eternal love, joy, and...
Winter’s Icy Breath
An interesting reflection today, considering conversations this week about the cold, the rain, the chageability of it all, etc...... It reminds me, too, of scripture that also says, "The rain falls on the just and the unjust." (Posted 2/4/2016) God's Icy Breath by Joni Eareckson Tada "The breath of God produces ice, and the broad waters become frozen. He brings the clouds to punish men or to water his earth and show his love." Job 37:10 "Midwest winters between mid-January and early March are notorious for their lack of romance. God's cold breath is felt daily. The deepest lakes thicken...
Memory of Family Pets
2/4/2017..... Pet Memories "We have been medicating our little one-eyed kitty's "good" eye for about 3 weeks and have almost 2 more weeks of treatment. She then goes back to the veterinary ophthalmology office in Tallahassee. It seems to be much better. She appears to be seeing well enough to manage. We have felt like a veterinary hospital ourselves lately. In addition to the one-eyed kitty's treatment, we have a 14 yo cat that is getting subcutaneous fluids 3 X a week and an injection prescribed by Dr. Bo Bergloff that Bill and I are doing. Our diabetic dog, Winston, gets glucose monitoring...
Training on Baby Food or Meat of the Word
I have expressed a preference to see more groups take on direct Bible study instead of purchasing commercial lesson package plans with DVDs, books, and study guides one after another. We are training people to eat scriptural baby food instead of training them to chew the meat of the Word for themselves. Use of a devotional book is a pleasant experience and exposes us to a range of other's work in the Word, but it must be accompanied by discipleship teaching on how to mine the scripture's treasures for one's self, too. 2/4/2017 notes in journal: "Somewhere along the way the church started...
Cruciform Living: Ann Voscamp
Ann Voskamp in a video presentation 2/4/2017: "You are what your heart loves. .....Draw a cross on your wrist and ask, "What do you want?" And "Do you want what Christ wants?" Cross-shaped thinking, cross-shaped living...cruciformation. We are called to take risks to bring others to Christ. Be the Esther generation. Now is the time to be configured by your imitation of Christ......Get in formation and disciple a generation to live in cruciformation. We are in a crisis of discipleship...We are in a crisis of worship. We have loved safety more than we have loved the Savior. We have loved...