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.
Life At The Speed of Light: If You Can’t Stop, Wave or Honk
When a man and woman get married, if each brings priority of life in Christ to the relationship and manages to negotiate the currents and stay in the boat, they are probably able to understand quantum mechanics. Last night Bill and I watched Einstein's Quantum Riddle. He had already viewed it and found it intriguing. So we watched it together. He said, "Do you understand this??" I said, "Yes." He looked at me incredulously and said, "How." Well, I DID win the Bausch and Lomb Science Award for academics in high school. And I DID major in Laboratory Science at Auburn University which entailed...
From a Hillside Overlook Rest Stop
There was a time in my life, after I made a full surrender of all of who I believed myself to be to all I believed I knew of God, that God began to show me great and wonderful things in the Word. I was humbled and awestruck by the things God would speak to my heart through his Word, by his Holy Spirit, through anointed and prophetic individuals and organizations he placed in my path and by what were, at times, very every-day and, other times, very extraordinary circumstances. Even when they didn’t appear to be desirable or feel very comfortable those circumstances somehow eventually played...
Going Home at the Appointed Time
I received a message recently from a Facebook friend who asked this: “Cathy, you had a post awhile back regarding a young man, I think, with addiction problems that had died and how God sometimes calls people home, releasing them from their misery - does that ring a bell? My son's girlfriend found her dad last night - I think it was suicide - he'd been dealing with colon cancer for the last 15 months or so - and I would love to share that post with her if you can by any chance find it for me.” Here is the reply I sent to her this week: I have searched through FB posts and cannot find exactly...
Advent Themes: Hope, Peace, Joy, Love
Romans 15:13-17- "May the God of HOPE fill you with all JOY and PEACE as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with HOPE by the power of the Holy Spirit." This coming week we will shift from October to November. Have you realized there are only 61 days ‘til Christmas? But one does not need a calendar to know that we are hastening toward this season. The Christmas displays in many stores have already been up for several weeks. Lists are already being made and dates for family meals confirmed. Travel arrangements are being made. The season ahead is a wonderful time of family gatherings,...
“Big Picture” Prayer – Latter Rain Favor and Redemption of All Creation
Pastor Craig Carter, has asked our church staff to share our "big picture" prayers for ministries and missions. Some have already shared about their "big picture" hopes and prayers. Over the last week I keep coming back to one thought that plays in my mind again and again. I was considering our experience of last year’s October 10, 2018 Hurricane Michael (Category 5, 919 millibars pressure, 161 mph winds, compact, fast moving, and devastating) and last week’s October 2019 Tropical Storm Nestor (broadly elongated with less well defined cyclonic profile, bringing far less destructive winds...
On Call….. 24 hours a day……
Someone had contacted me about a post I had put on Facebook quite a while ago about dealing with the death of a young man. She had a young person in her life who had suffered the loss of someone she loved and this FB friend of mine wanted to share that post with this young person. As I searched for it I came across a number of posts that I had forgotten about. This one in particular caught my eye because almost the same thing happened recently..... I was awakened in the night out of a deep sleep and realized I was supposed to get up and write a letter on behalf of someone going to court. ...
After the Storm…… A Remembrance
Shared at Carillon Beach Community Chapel on Sunday, October 20, 2019 10:00 a.m. at a Service of Remembrance. Titus 2 Partnership’s home, like so many others in the path of the storm was battered and broken on October 10, 2018. In the first few days after Hurricane Michael, as assessments were being made, there was a lot of uncertainty. Was the structure beyond repair? Would the cost of repairs be more than the value of the property warranted? What factors would decide our future and who would make the final decision? Insurance company adjusters controlling interpretation of policy...
Living Into the Wholeness of Triune Godhead Faith
It seems to me that if we believe that God is the Triune Godhead, immutable and united as One, and that Jesus Christ is the Incarnate God and the Holy Spirit is the spirit of God present in our hearts to guide us through comfort, confirmation, and conviction, then there is a problem with the way some are approaching the issue of homosexuality and its associated issues. They do not deny that God’s Word condemns sexual sin. They simply point to the fact that Jesus did not directly condemn their particular brand of sexual sin during his life and ministry among humankind. Therefore, they say,...
Complementarianism = Evangelegend
"I’m forced to think a lot of the pearl-clutching is due to the fact that MacArthur’s brand of complementarianism is simply out of step with culture. Maybe MacArthur’s right here: maybe we’ve swallowed so much feminism that an uncontroversial stance of 10 years ago is shocking today. That’s the leftward march of progressivism, moving the window of what’s acceptable in polite discourse forward at warp speed." This quote from Kyle Mann's opinion piece https://www.disrn.com/…/opinion-the-go-home-heard-round-t…/… Maybe the "pearl-clutching" (a veiled and not-funny-at-all slap at women who...
Church Militant
When a new assemblage of women come into Titus 2, it generally takes a few weeks to "settle in." With the Hurricane Michael repairs finally coming to an end, we have been able to work back toward a full house and teaching schedule. The first few weeks are difficult, fraught with anxiety, detoxing, emotional instability, physical aches, prickly personal spaces, and menses that begin to align. Why in the world would God do that...have women who live in common shelter all have PMS at the same time??? Maybe it is like Archie Bunker's infamous attitude toward Edith's menopause woes.... to just...