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.
Living Local, Giving Local…….
It is the time of year when many churches set their budgets for the following year and conduct their stewardship campaigns. Among Methodist friends I am hearing more and more people (of the ones who have chosen to remain in a local UMC congregations) expressing their concern over continued news reports : same sex marriages and homosexual clergy ordination in The UMC, over-representation in General Conference of small liberal conferences, under-representation of conferences in more traditional and orthodox areas like Africa and elsewhere, liberal seminary teaching, heretical episcopal...
Listening A Soul Into Existence….
Catherine de Hueck Doherty: With the gift of listening comes the gift of healing, because listening to your brothers or sisters until they have said the last words in their hearts is healing and consoling. Someone has said that it is possible "to listen a person's soul into existence." I like that. (from Christian Spirituality of the East for Western Man) Tonight I was looking for a particular book and came across an old obsolete address book that I used for decades probably beginning circa 1978. I thought I had long ago thrown it out with the advent of computer databases and social media...
Word and Way……Learn and Live
Today with the Titus 2 ladies we did a lesson on Isaiah 1:18-19.....God's call to reason. This is not an invitation to argue or debate with God about God's priorities. I hear it more like God saying, "You stiff-necked, stubborn, ungrateful and uninformed people.....listen to me! This is the bottom line. God's gives a description of his two-fold work of grace in addressing our sin.......making it "like snow" (the imputed justifying grace that wraps around and covers us in the pure righteousness of Christ) and making it's crimson stain "as wool" (the imparted sanctifying...
Thy Kingdom Come…..
Some days you're flying and some days you're landing in the net...... Some days I fail miserably with Patience. Yesterday it was comical how strenuously God tested my Patience quotient. As exhausting and time consuming as it was, I managed to actually smile through the whole experience. I think the difference was that my time for the day was consciously and intentionally given entirely to whatever God purposed. I was free to give it to the circumstances God put before me without feeling that I was denying someone else something they needed, that my own agenda was being interrupted, or that...
In The Hands Of God……Sometimes Humorously and Exhilaratingly So!
I love the imagery of being "In The Hands of God". Last night I heard that song as I was driving home from Bethlehem Family Camp in Bonifay, FL., and this morning I was reminded of this post when it popped up on my FB. Thanks for the laugh this morning, Pammi Jo Alsip Nevins, as I remember our conversation at your kitchen table! ( From my Facebook post on October 22, 2016) I have a friend that makes me laugh. She puts such fun words in God's mouth! "MY circus, MY little monkey!" I'm feeling a little like Curious George in the hands of my Trainer ! What it feels like sometimes to be in the...
Control Dramas and UMC Ordination Committees
I was reading information today about a workshop on reducing "control dramas" Here's some of the information: "What is a Control Drama: How Do We Interact without Tension? How to Recognize Intimidator Behavior How to Recognize Poor Me Behavior How to Recognize Interrogator Behavior How to Recognize Aloof Behavior Assertive Communication Creates Balance for Any Control Drama" Man, oh, man! I wish I had had something like this to lalert me to how to deal with Interrogator Behavior and Aloof Behavior before I had my first interaction with the ordination committees of the UMC Conference Board in...
Guilt…..Removing The Word From a Christian’s Vocabulary
I was having one of those "as we drove along" conversations with Titus 2 ladies the other day. We'd had some difficult situations through the week and I took this captive-audience time to talk to them about guilt. As I shared with them, it is a totaly wasted, unnecessary negative emotion for a Christian. Guilt is an emotion that arises from feeling condemned. That is not from God, but from satan. When we know ourselves as the beloved daughters and sons of God that we are, when we have done something wrong we will feel the nudging conviction of the Holy Spirit and our response will be...
Choosing to Think the Best
A couple of years ago I dismissed a student from Titus 2 for egregious violations of rules and an unrelentingly rebellious spirit after only a short time in the Titus 2 program. She moved on and amazingly, accomplished her goals under her own steam with little outside help, though with what continued to be a considerable amount of outside demands and supervision. I watched her grow. I cheered for her when I could, gave her help when needed, and I was delighted to see her "make it". I pray that the lessons she's as she's struggled these last few years will not be forgotten. This past week it...
Not A Case Of Dissin’ Jesus
After a Facebook post I wrote about a clergy person who objected to the Saturday Community Breakfast, held at First United Methodist Church of Panama City, at which The Bay County Islamic Society cooked breakfast and an inter-cultural prayer was offered by someone from their group, I received quite a few comments personally by people who agreed with my view that our call to hospitality to those who believe differently, or don't believe at all, is a priority for the Community Breakfast. It is, after all, about "community"....defined as being an invitation to come and enjoy fellowship and...
Waiting for Dust to Settle……
I wrote the following post shortly after receiving notice of my discontinuing from provisional deacons status in March of 2017. I had failed to preserve it except in a Facebook post. When I came across it today, I decided to preserve it here on my own blog so that I can recall it someday when all of the dust has settled..... Anyone who's been around us "church people" (or any kind of people, for that matter!) for any length of time know about "people pleasing" and "tickling ears". While clergy may have enjoyed a sense of "control" over churches at one time, clearly church laity has...