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.
The Land: Instructing the Heart and Mind
I have been reading "Jesus and the Land: The New Testament Challenge to Holy Land Theology " by Gary Burge. I have to take it in small bites and read it side by side with Scripture. The notion of "the land" as more than geography has been one that has rolled around in my head since God spoke to me through a vision of myself as "the land", a plowed field in 1997, and it was confirmed to me that much of what we observe in the physical realm has a corollary in the spiritual realm. Hence, Jesus' prolific use of parables and metaphors....Margaret Manning of RZIM shares her own experience of a...
Lessons from the Syrophoenician Woman’s Plea
A heretical bishop in the United Methodist Church had written that this story, told in Matthew 15:21-28 and in Mark 7:24-30, is an example of Jesus' bigotry and misogyny, that he would ignore a Gentile woman's pleading for help. But as I wrote then, after reading her tripe about Jesus having been acculturated to such behavior and having to learn compassion and tolerance of non-Jews, this is a case of Jesus setting a test for his disciples to help them see their own bigotry and demonstrating the role of persevering faith, and also testing the faith and determination of the woman. It...
O, My Soul, Why Are You Cast Down?
This little piece of wood with a cross and two sheep brings to mind a biblical image of one's soul being 'cast down'. Although it looks like the one little sheep closest to the cross on its back may be playfully rolling around, it is actually in dire distress, possibly deadly danger. A sheep that has rolled over onto its back is called a "cast" sheep. It will likely not be able to get up without assistance. This happens most commonly with short, stocky sheep with full fleeces on flat terrain. To be cast down is to be in a posture of distress from which one cannot rise on her own. Why...
Launching
This meme spotted on Facebook is a poignant reminder of those days 20+ years ago when we moved our son (at The Citadel) and our daughter (at Birmingham-Southern College) into their dorm rooms to start college. I didn't cry when we left Billy in Charleston. I was grateful for the military structure that I hoped would change things, that he would grow up. I did, however, cry all the way home when we left Charlotte Anne, somehow sensing that things would never be the same again. Perhaps it was more a matter of sensing things deep within myself that reflected how college changed me and my view...
Ironing As Loving
Another laundry day activity was ironing. My mother would starch the shirts of my Daddy and brothers and some other items, roll them up and put them in a basket in the bottom of the refrigerator until she had time to iron them. Sometimes I would iron them, especially as I got older. There was something peaceful about ironing. And seeing the smooth fabric as the wrinkles were ironed out, smelling the starch, and feeling the heat as I buttoned them onto hangers was a satisfying sense of accomplishment. Over the years newer synthetic blend fabrics and changes in styles virtually eliminated the...
Laundry Day
Saturday I saw sheets hanging in the sunshine on a privacy fence. It reminded me of all the times I pinned laundry on a clothesline and took it off to fold, placing the wooden clothes pins in the large pocket of the apron that accompanied the task. These were the years of my childhood and youth in Randolph County, Georgia. Every home had a clothesline in the backyard and most days laundry could be seen flapping in the breeze on most of them. I was the oldest of 4 children and that duty often fell to me. We had a heavy duty automatic Maytag washer. It had no buzzer to advise when the load...
The Old Is Gone; The New Has Come!
As some have discovered: "The Lord loves each of us JUST THE WAY WE ARE. And he loves us so much that he will not leave us that way...." His love changes our hearts, our very nature and eventually also changes our habits. The Unraveling July 24 at 7:30 PM · An open letter to the Christian "bad girl": Dear Christian “bad girl”, I see you. I know you. I am one of you. I’m also a Jesus-loving “bad girl”. I’ve done things many Christians would cringe at the thought of. I know the awkwardness you feel when you are around certain “church people”. It’s not that you don’t like...
How Stupid Does FB Think I Am?
I find it ironic that Facebook regularly sends me messages on the Titus 2 or the Christians Growing Christians notifications page that "you haven't posted in a while" and inviting me to post and boost posts by paying for reach. Yet, I know quite well that their algorithms limit viewers of my posts. They compress my reach so that I'm essentially just posting for my own convenience as a journal to preserve some thoughts, then they want to sell me ads to boost my posts. However, they do not really want the Gospel messages that I post to get any distribution and even if I were stupid enough or...
A New Way to Do Life Recovery Counseling
This summer I have experimented with a new concept at Titus 2 – a weekend intensive in individual recovery counseling. A young woman from out of town with some life recovery needs was referred to me by a mutual friend. She is employed and attending school, caring for a couple of family members and does not have the luxury of an extended stay in a residential recovery program. She has struggled to find appropriate counseling that could accommodate her schedule requirements and her desire for more time in sessions. After one lengthy face-to-face session, a couple of shorter video sessions and...
Methodist Seeds, Methodist Fruit
. It is just so like God to give one glimpses of how he’s been working in one’s life for decades in a simple, single moment. I received an email from a United Methodist point of contact about a group of college students coming from Andrew College in Cuthbert, GA who are looking for some community service work while they are in Bay County. I grew up in Randolph County where Andrew College sits on Hwy 82. I lived a couple of blocks from it during my pre-school years. When I graduated from high school in 1971, I took summer classes at Andrew College before making the decision to go to Auburn...