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.
Westeroff and Faith Enculturation
In the early 2000's, as I began my formal training in Christian Education, I discovered several models of Faith Developoment. One that resonated with me most was that of John Westerhoff, in the book, "Will Our Children Have Faith?" (New York: Seabury Press, 1976) JOHN WESTERHOFF ‘S Faith Development Model ( With excerpts from “An Evaluation of the Contribution of John H. Westerhoff III to Religious Education” - M. S. Bickford, Ph.D. https://www.religiouseducation.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/RIG1.5-Bickford.pdf Westerhoff presented a four-stage theory...
Singing The 23rd Psalm
3/24/17 Here is another Psalms song the Lord taught me. It is Psalm 23 to the tune of the Welsh Blessing. In one of the older UMC hymnals the tune is the same one for the hymn “Sent Forth By God’s Blessing.” The Lord put that tune in my mind at one point and I just kept humming it for weeks, then all of a sudden the words of Psalm 23 “dropped” into the tune. I wrote them down as I was singing it and I located the music somewhat through chance, when I heard a UMC children’s curriculum DVD playing in a children’s Sunday School class I was teaching with the song “Sent Forth By God’s...
Trust in the Lord…..Singing Psalm 37
3/24/17 I am reading a small book- Psalms Playlist – a Seedbed.com published book that I purchased recently when Dr. Sandra Richter was here for our Renewal Conference at Lynn Haven UMC. I am delighted by the concept that J.D. Walt and Dr. Timothy Tennent of Asbury Theological Seminary and his wife Julie Tennent have worked out in setting contemporary translations of the Psalms to music! I grew up singing Psalms arrangements in choir, many of which are no longer readily available. I have tried to find some of them to reconnect with those tunes as an adult for my private worship time. In...
The Parable of the Soils…..Thinking About “Seedbed” and the Soil of Souls Seeking Recovery
I received a call from someone who is in recovery and whose adult child and other family members are in recovery. The person is going to be meeting with a very young woman for whom she cares and who is in jail after having been arrested with her boyfriend for drug use. This person who called me was asking for some guidance in meeting with and offering help to this young lady. I have worked now with a wide range of women, 18-55. I have discovered that almost any recovery program to which a person commits oneself diligently will work when the individual is truly ready to change. But the key is...
The Old Woman….Pictures and the People They Remind Us Of
I have a limited edition print (75/500) called "The Old Woman" painted by Mary Shelton Burson in 1982. The date on the print is 11/20/1990. You can see she is sitting in a wheelbarrow reading something. I bought it, probably in 1990, from a friend who was a family member of the artist. As an avid reader, it spoke to my heart about a love that one never outgrows....reading! But today, as I thought about that picture, I got my magnifying glass and looked at the page of the book... in her hand, what the old woman is reading....it is unevenly spaced and variable handwritten script,...
If you won’t be obedient to what’s in black in white, why would you be obedient to anything else?
I realize that not everyone "hears" the Lord's voice...feels the Spirit within their own spirit the way I do at times. One young lady with whom I am working is a very sensitive person and a new Christian. She is especially wanting the Lord to give her clear direction, to speak to her and let her feel his presence. If we do not seek God's will in his Word first, where it is clearly given, why would God give us other means of hearing him? Anything we hear or see we are to "...test" against his written Word. If you don't know what God has said in the Word you can get quite deceived by...
On Journaling…..
On Journaling 3-24-17 CBByrd I have been asked to lead a workshop on journaling next month for a group of Christian women. I have years of journals...But in recent years FB and the weblog "DisciplerofSelf...Seeking Christ in the World" has become my journal. Those two formats are quick, easy, part of my day almost anywhere that I am. The weblog has 610 posts that go back to July 23, 2005. Sometimes I refer back to a post there as I am looking for content related to a particular lesson with discipleship students or the...
Thoughts on Reality and Submission to the Authority of Christ
Excerpt from James MacDonald- Walk in the Word devotional: 3/24/17 CBByrd "Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9–11, esv). Someday Jesus Christ will step onto the world scene and bring this whole, unfolding drama to a conclusion. His presence and appearance will bring all of us to our knees. Every...
I am ……..in Christ
Jesus qualified me as a priest unto God. I am welcomed into His glorious presence to minister to Him in the same way that Jesus is welcomed into His presence, for I am in Christ. I declare that God has predestined me to be like Jesus, and this privilege of worship is a part of His plan. So I live for God to be exalted in and through my life in all I am and all I do. From: Experience the Impossible by Bill Johnson (Subtitle: Simple Ways to Unleash Heaven’s Power on Earth.)
God Is Present in Our Personal Narratives……and Ours Are All a Part of His
Jill Carattini writes today about how our petites histoires, our small individual stories, are part of the grand narrative. How we view and relate to that grand narrative molds and shapes how we tell our own story. As each woman at Titus 2 begins to have hope renewed, she crafts her personal story, her testimony, based on the growing relationship with Christ. Our privilege is to watch the unfolding of that personal witness as a testimony to God’s love, grace, and provision for each of us. I recall in 1990, as I began in earnest the discipline of journaling, my first entry was an attempt...