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.
Singing Psalm 23
Years ago the Lord put a tune in my heart and taught me to sing Psalm 23 to the tune. Later I discovered that the tune is the Welsh Blessing and it is in one of the older UMC hymnals with the hymn lyrics “Sent Forth By God’s Blessing.” The Lord put that tune in my mind at one point and I just kept humming it for weeks, then all of a sudden the words of Psalm 23 “dropped” into the tune. I wrote them down as I was singing it and I located the music somewhat through chance, when I heard a UMC children’s curriculum DVD playing in a children’s Sunday School class I was teaching in 1995 with the...
Singing Psalm 37
I had not ever heard this tune before the Lord set my heart to singing it in 2002, then dropped the words of Psalm 37:3-5 into it: I grew up singing Psalm arrangements in choir, many of which are no longer readily available, as I have tried to find some of them to reconnect with those tunes as an adult for my private worship time. In 2002 as I was preparing to lay direct a women’s Emmaus walk at Blue Lake, there was a tune that kept playing in my head for weeks. I had not known it before, it just came to me and I hummed it off and on. As I worked on preparation for the walk, I selected Psalm...
Thinking About a “Word-Shaped World”
God spoke all creation into being. I was reading a discussion thread about journaling. Many people journal their thoughts about their study of the Bible or about their observations of God at work in the world. In the discussion group individuals were advised to “know the reason for their journaling.” For me journaling was once a safe place to vent to God, unload my emotional baggage and explore my hidden self. When I became more attuned to myself and God and more willing to be vulnerable and used by God, my journaling became about sharing my journey and what I was learning about God with...
Accountability, Integrity, and Honesty in recovery
Accountability- the quality or state of being accountable; especially : an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions. Integrity- the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness; the state of being whole and undivided; the condition of being unified, unimpaired, or sound in makeup; internal consistency or lack of corruption; trustworthiness and incorruptibility to a degree that one is incapable of being false to a trust, responsibility, or pledge. Proven honesty that is trustworthy over time. Life recovery must begin...
What I Don’t Know….Embracing Teaching
From 2/2/19 In about 2000 I was teaching an adult Sunday School Class. We did a series on spiritual gifts and took a spiritual gifts inventory. My primary gifts were faith and teaching. I was not particularly comfortable with the gift of teaching. I had no formal training in teaching and I had not done much of it. The whole notion of lesson plans, being viewed as "authoritative" about a topic, managing a classroom, etc. was foreign to me. All I did was study, attempt to listen to the Holy Spirit's instruction to me, share it with others, and facilitate the conversation. But as a part...
A Psalm for Evening Prayer
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...
Liturgy of Letting Go – New Year, New You
Worship for New Beginnings: Liturgy of Letting Go Today we honor the changes that we’ve made over this last year and the growth that comes from change. We’re saying goodbye to our old ways and saying hello to what we trust will be the beginning of a future with even greater hope. We remember how Abraham and Sarah set out to a new country and a new life, not knowing where they were being led. Change and growth are full of uncertainty. We remember how Naomi turned back from the land of Moab and returned to the Promised Land, trusting that God would provide. Change and growth require leaps of...
He’s Baaaaaaaaaack……
I had decorated for Christmas. I had been to a sweet, festive Christmas gathering among members of my extended family whom I see usually only for funerals or weddings. I had read and listened to Luke and Isaiah and other pertinent scriptures related to Advent and the Incarnation of God in Christ. And I had contemplated a variety of ways to help stir up awareness of the Holy Spirit’s Presence in our midst this season. I posted the seasonal "cheer" on Facebook last year and it popped up again this year. So I shared it again. Last year I was struggling mightily with rallying the Christmas...
Remembering Who You Are And Whose You Are
It has been said that to learn from one’s own experience is “smart”; to learn from the experience of others is “wisdom.” One valuable feature of living within a faith-informed recovery community is testimonies. We gain strength and confidence in our journey as we hear stories of resilience and overcoming shared by others who have trusted in God and found him faithful. The art of testimony, of witnessing to others through our own experience, requires that we understand the lesson we are hoping to communicate. Ideally, our experience offers hope and assurance that one is never beyond a fresh...
Getting It Right
Fourth Sunday of Advent Reflection- Sunday, December 22, 2019 CBByrd Just pondering...… Tossing, turning, and experiencing a stomach ache last night, I found myself awake and uncomfortable. But something else had discomfited me, too..... some wandering thoughts as my brain processed its "stuff to remember" into permanent storage in my neurons reminded me that in a reflection on Luke 1 recently I had written about Elizabeth and Zacharias. In the night my mind seemed to ask me, "Is that who you meant?" So, since I was getting up anyway, I got online, found the reflection in my weblog, double...