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.
Lessons from Daddy
On Father's Day someone posted a question on Facebook.....What are some things your Father taught you? Some of the things that came to my mind right away were these: How to drive a standard transmission vehicle. How to check oil in a car. How to wiggle my ears. How to bray like a donkey. That a loyal pet is worth tears. How to enjoy peanut butter straight from the jar with a spoon. How to work hard, really hard. That love is defined by what you give, not what you get. How to sacrifice for others. How to accept disappointment. How to die well.
Picture Book Theology and Therapy
Such a range of topics can be covered in a recovery counseling session! I can move from Johari windows to the Apostle Paul's progression of humility revealed in Scripture to reading The Velveteen Rabbit to John Wesley's Holy Club questions! Oh, the places you'll go when God is leading! The thing I love the most is that while I have certain standard activities and topics that I like to cover, sometimes the Lord gently speaks into the situation and says, "Hey, let's do this today!" Some of the holiest moments happen when I scrap my plan and just go with the River's flow! A few years ago at a...
Bilderberger Basics for the Befuddled
Since what I post has pretty well been dismissed, marginalized and censored by social media's Big Brothers on Facebook and Twitter, I feel no risk in saying what I think. So here goes..... I wrote a group of television public service announcements one time in advance of a senate race in Alabama. I had several well known state and local politicians video the PSAs.. In one of them I had written, "Know the influential people in your community". The politician who was to record that PSA declined to say that. He would only say, "Know your elected officials." They do not want people to know the...
At the Edge of History
Early in my young adult life I was taken in by the courageous, persevering women of the Civil Rights movement in Montgomery, Alabama who became spiritual mothers to me. They worked through many means, including the League of Women Voters where I myself volunteered and studied how to change the world, one person alone, one task at the time, in the face of overwhelming opposition, standing only in the name of what’s right and good and fair (as exemplified in the life of Christ for nearly every one of us, though some of our sisters were Jewish and others were Universalists, and...
Plowed Fields
"The best yields always start as broken fields." (From The Broken Way by Ann VosKamp) The Lord spoke to my heart on March 20, 1997 as I drove past this lovely fresh-plowed field on U.S. Hwy. 231 South, just north of Cottondale, FL. A sudden burst of light, like a lightning bolt, seen out of the corner of my eye, caused me to turn toward this view and I felt the Lord say, "This is you!" i was surprised and delighted by the Lord's Word that afternoon. I went home and began reading passages about "field", "plowing", "planting", etc. in an effort to discern God's will. I was...
Wilderness Wooing
You will never find Jesus so precious as when the world is one vast howling wilderness. Then he is like a rose blooming in the midst of the desolation, a rock rising above the storm.-Robert Murray McCheyne Pastor Donna Pfeffer is leading our ladies through “”Discerning the Vouce of God” by Priscilla Shirer. Today Shirer’s lesson was on hearing God in the wilderness..... using principles from the life of Moses I had been reflecting on some thoughts from Ann Voskamp, too, this week on being in the wilderness not because you’ve been banished but in order that you might be wooed. “Behold I will...
Same Kind of Sinful as Me….
Text message from a young lady in recovery: "Why does satan continue to fight a war with God he has already lost?" Me: "Because he is stubborn and willful......just like us." God is sovereign. His will is ultimately going to be done. Yet we, like satan, continue to think we can negotiate with, rebel against, or ignore God. How is that any different than what satan has always done? God is patient. He will bring about his justice when he is ready. In the meantime, he patiently and lovingly redeems the mistakes and bad choices of all of us when we are willing to submit to him in repentance and...
God’s Heart
I had a call from someone who has struggled with depression for a decade or longer. A couple of times it has taken him to the dark, despairing edge of suicidal ideations. Thankfully, God was always there to bring him back from the precipice of destruction. He had an experience in the last few days that led him to call me to ask some questions. He had been listening to a radio news program from a large metropolitan area near his home. There was a report of a 2-year-old child killed by the mother’s boyfriend. He found himself suddenly weeping uncontrollably at the thought of such a tragedy. He...
A Word Well-Spoken…..
When it comes to evangelism, I prefer the St. Philip method....by divine appointment, where they are, one-on-one, answering their questions, teaching the Word, celebrating a covenant, and equipping the receiver to take it home and duplicate the process...... When it's by God's design you can "be bright, be brief, and be gone" and the message will have been exactly what it was supposed to be. Some of the most memorable and life changing events of my life consisted of no more than 2 or 3 sentences well placed by divine appointment. The fire of the Holy Spirit will bring parties together,...
Why Spiritual Counseling Is Useful Adjunct Therapy to Mental Health Counseling- Reason #2
Last week I wrote about spiritual attacks and the fact that there are sometimes demonic influences causing dysfunctional behavior and thinking in people. Discerning and addressing such demonic influences is only one reason why spiritual education and counseling is a valuable adjunct to mental health counseling. A second reason involves the issue of personal identity. Many times people lack sufficient self- awareness, understanding, and self-confidence to be able to stand in their own emotional, mental, and moral strength. Instead, they are constantly looking to others as a frame a...