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.
Dangerous Choices
One of the things about an ENTJ personality like myself is that they are basically rule followers. And they hold others accountable to follow the rules. If I have been told what I am to do by someone in authority and I understand it and have the means to do it, I am going to do my best to do it. Now that hasn't always been the case. There was a time, in my young adult years, when I was living in selfishness and rebellion against some things that I would do what I wanted to, often times denying my values and without consideration of the impact to myself or others. But having submitted my life...
Steadfast Love and Intimate Fellowship
Evening meditation: The Lord has had me for several days reflecting on the dual nature of one's relationship with Him....captivated by His steadfast love AND enjoying intimate fellowship through living in righteousness. And the reality that we can know that we are continuing in His love even when we have compromised our fellowship with Him through sinful behavior. Tonight as I read, I saw this confirmed in Psalm 130.... Psalm 130- A song of ascents. 1 Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; 2 Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. 3 If you, Lord, kept a record of...
Angels Rehabbed, Repaired, Recycled, Restored
It is the imperfections that reflect our history and experiences. Since God is present with us even in our difficult times we have no reason to hide them or feel ashamed because of them. Christ retained his scars in the resurrection so our Lord clearly believes that such marks on our lives are part of our witness and can be celebrated for the healing and redemption we now know! In the Japanese culture they embellish cracks in pottery with molten silver or gold to repair them and to create beautiful accents on the pottery. It is restorative art worthy of note! This little rustic angel with...
God’s Love Language
Jesus also told them to "go and sin no more.." If they continued sinning he didn't love them less, but they were not included in the fellowship of followers or given the keys to the kingdom.....There are two parts to relationship with God.... his unconditional love (without a doubt) and also his requirement for hungering and thirsting for righteousness in order to enjoy his fellowship and the blessings that come from close communion..... We cannot lose his love, but we can forfeit his fellowship...... Godly love is unconditional positive regard AND accountability in righteous fellowship....
Therapeutic Interpersonal Learning
Why we include emotional literacy, values education, sharing our lives as well as our testimony, and the importance of interdependent living at Titus 2: The Most Private is Often What Resonates the Strongest The pyschologist Carl Rogers, a person who would know quite well the interior lives of others, has this to say of our inmost thoughts: I have most invariably found that the very feeling which has seemed to me most private, most personal and hence, most incomprehensible by others, has turned out to be an expression for which there is a resonance in many people. It has led me to believe...
Mentoring Toward Work-and-Worship Ordered Lifestyles
1/2/2021 reflection What am I doing today? THIS: Mentoring women into work-and-worship-ordered lifestyles. Today and everyday. One of today’s take aways: You are not what you do. God desires that you would DO what you ARE. What does the world say you are? What does God say you are? God has created you perfectly, with all the talents, gifts, passions, and personality for what He has intended....for a purpose. You are called to live into that purpose in all you do. Chip ingram’s parenting class today at Titus 2. Theology of work: Teach them to work ‘unto the Lord’, Included in the 5 smooth...
Pain of Change
Notice how undergoing these transformational processes requires enduring intense pressure, persevering through chronic irritation, and patiently awaiting the change......
Seeking Christ in the World……
Sometime in the last decade or so, someone had given me a photocopied page of a story. I do not know the source. It has the page number "166" and the top of the page says "A Gentle Thunder". I do not have a copy of Max Lucado's book by that title, but it sounds like something Lucado might have written. I am going to reproduce this one page story here on my weblog page with this note that it is believed to be from that book. . If you can confirm that, please do. It seems an appropriate start to the New Year for those who wish 2022 to be different from recent years..... Once there was a...
“You Hold the Stone”
One cannot disconnect the New Testament from the Old Testament or one verse from another. It comes to life in our hearts and minds by the Holy Spirit of God in us only as we embrace it in its entirety and begin living obediently to God in it. I have been coming gradually to that conclusion most of my life. In my childhood I studied the Word of God in Sunday School and in youth activities, doing "sword drills" to find and memorize scripture texts. They lived in the recesses of my soul even during years when I didn't recall them or seek to apply them to my life. However, eventually,...
New Year Wisdom
Resolution for the New Year: Daily hosting Christ in my heart, inviting God to be The Transcendent, The Immanent, The Intimate Indwelling One according to all that THE GREAT I AM desires to be in me. There was a time when I signed personal correspondence with this- "Expecting the BEST!" I was driven by a desire for excellence and had high expectations for myself and others (which, I suspect, was more than a little burdensome to others!) Then after a particularly holy communion experience during which the pastor said to me, "God's BEST has been given for you!" I realized that my expectation...