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.
Chronos Vs. Kairos
My morning meditation...... Last night at our weekly small group at Titus 2 we talked about some conditions, or states of mind, that can lead to relapse. Historically referred to by the acronym H.A.L.T.- hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. We talked about the ways in which those conditions can lure us into irrational thinking that blocks our ability to exercise self- control ( or overrides our ability to choose to allow the Holy Spirit to be our control!) After our meeting we happened into a conversation about timing..... chronos and kairos timing..... our physical experience of linear...
Songs In The Heart
I have written before about how frequently I awaken with a song playing in my mind, a hymn for the day, more or less. I hum or sing it as I arise and go about my day. On October 19, 2020, that song was a simple little song from my childhood: “A sunbeam, a sunbeam, Jesus wants me for a sunbeam. A sunbeam, a sunbeam, I’ll be a sunbeam for him.” Needless to say, it was a song I couldn’t remember having thought about in ages and most likely had not sung since the two years I taught 4 and 5 year olds in Sunday School twenty six years ago. I sang it as I made my morning coffee that day...
Ones We Should Protect
I love(d) my husband, Bill, who died recently. And I know that Bill loved me. There were, however, ways in which we hurt one another over the 48 years of our marriage. And although we came from families that made it clear that divorce was not an option, that doesn’t mean the word didn’t come up from time to time. Even very early. I recall a day when Bill said to me in a careless moment, “ if you ever get fat like ......(____)....I’ll divorce you.” I already had some wounds from previous body-shaming in childhood and self-image insecurity. That comment made a deep mark in my soul in the shape...
Holy …… Holy, Holy ….. Holy, Holy, Holy
Today’s message at Lynn Haven UMC was on “becoming”, following two previous weeks’ messages on “belonging” and “believing”. Pastor Craig Carter referenced Hebrews 9:28, “so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.” I have contemplated God’s call to us to “be holy, as I am holy”, as well as His Word’s message that God alone is “Holy, Holy, Holy.” I know that the Hebrew language used repetition of descriptive adjectives to indicate normative, comparative and superlative...
Fruit of the Spirit as Landmarks on the Spiritual Journey
Fruit of the Spirit as Landmarks in our Spiritual Journey……. I had wanted the stairs at Titus 2’s residential recovery program stenciled with the Fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22-23 since the home was purchased in November 2014. Finally, in 2019 as we were working on the post- Hurricane Michael renovation, it got done! The Scripture stencil was donated by Cinda Trexler. The fruit stencil I searched for until I found one I liked. And the work was done by Tamyra Dawn, a lady I have known for over 10 years and whose recovery work often frustrated me, but who has, in recent years...
A Journey Following Christ
Bill Byrd, who passed from this physical life into his true life in eternity with the Lord on August 6, 2020, was raised in Dearborn, MI, an only child, an only grandchild, and an only nephew among his immediate family. He did have a number of Byrd family aunts, uncles, and cousins with whom he visited in Montgomery and Monroeville, AL from time to time. Bill attended Crestwood High School in Dearborn, MI, where he played basketball and received his basketball letter sweater. When his parents retired and moved to Montgomery in 1968, he came somewhat unwillingly in the summer before his...
Good Grief
My husband died last Thursday. Today a friend acquainted with unhealthy ways of NOT dealing with one's grief, visited me and admonished me not to stuff my emotions, to take the time to grieve well, to not rush back into the busy-ness of my previous routine too quickly..... Her words reminded me of a journal entry from last summer after eight months of trauma, shock, and grieving as we had worked to recover from Hurricane Michael....... In these last few days many have reached out to me, shocked by Bill's death. In a sense, since October of 2018 I have been grieving. We were just coming out...
On Eugenics… The Shame of Liberal Progressivism
I read a social media post on looking to the church for moral leadership instead of political leaders Even looking to some churches, or to the views of the universal church "majority" for moral leadership can be problematic at certain times in history. A little history lesson on religious liberal progressive "white guilt" (and why all Christians are implicated by association) is evidenced in an article by Dr. Riley B. Case this week, excerpted here: "Fundamentalist and traditional Christians pushed hard against Charles Darwin, his Origin of the Species, and his views on evolution. Darwin...
Of Wolves, Sheep, and Sheepdogs
(4/16/19$ "There are three types of people in this world I once was told by a very wise man. Sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs Sheep don’t believe there is any evil or Satan in this world. Wolves prey on the naive sheep. Sheepdogs see the wolves for who they are and have the ability to protect the sheep. Feed my sheep protect my lambs were the instructions for Peter from the Lord Jesus Christ." William J. Bennett, in a lecture to the United States Naval Academy November 24, 1997 said "Most of the people in our society are sheep. They are kind, gentle, productive creatures who can only hurt one...
Not So Must You Act…..
The title of this post sounds a bit "Yoda-ish", I know. But, just as Yoda brought sound wisdom in attention-getting ways to generations over the last 50 years, so the Words of Scripture have brought wisdom to generations for millennia. I have had a hard week. Hard in trying to cope with a multitude of demands on me. Hard in trying to shake myself out of the funk my ineffective coping has wrought. Just hard. It seems to be a cycling around of the grief process once again that has engulfed me over and over since October 10, 2018 when Hurricane Michael strained all the resilience within...