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.
Rosaria Butterfield’s Testimony…. Thoughts on Longing and Identity
This speaker, Rosaria Butterfield, refers to her gradual dissolution into the LGBTQ culture ( after being raised in a Catholic tradition) through female social friendships (where she felt safe, connected, shared common justice interests, and felt understood) before it became a homosexual lifestyle and cause in her life and career. That statement jarred something loose in my mind. I remembered how I longed for connection with "soul sisters" in my adolescence and young adulthood. I was discovering how crass and focused on sex and partying men often were and I wanted something more.......
Grand- Life
This is how I experienced the onset of mid-life....turning away from the grief of regrets about the past and a feeling that the best part of my life was behind me to the joy of grandchildren. It is wonderful to watch another generation grow up! Each child is precious and unique. At 61, on the verge of the "final frontier" of life on earth, I continue to be delighted with all that they are becoming and doing! They are a gift! But even if I had never had the joy of children and grandchildren, God is good and life is worthwhile. There is an entire generation out there of children who are...
Ideals Judge
“Every ideal is a judge. So you posit an ideal and instantly you're in an inferior position in relationship to that ideal and that can be crushing. Okay, so what do you do about that? Well, one answer is no ideals. Well that's not a good answer because then you don't have anything to do. Right, so, so, and that deprives you of a main source of pleasure which is observed a generated as a consequence of observed movement towards a valued goal so if you have a high goal, and you see any movement towards that there's a potential is a really powerful potential kick there so you don't want to...
Repeating Ignored History
From 8/7/2022 Excerpt from Jonah Goldberg this week....The Goldberg File "Bonfire of the Asininities" It's an excellent opinion piece if you have access to the whole thing, read it! ".. I was once a producer for a TV show called Think Tank. The premise of the show was to take a single public policy idea and have actual experts debate it. After a while, it became obvious to me that pretty much every public policy idea is reducible, at the philosophical level, to the same perennial questions. Where does individual liberty intrude on the common good? At what point can the “we” dictate or...
“Can You Thank Me For Trusting You?”
I remember reading Helen Rosevear's story in Dr. Charles Stanley's In Touch Magazine many years ago. It still has power.Can you Thank Me? An interview with Helen Roseveare by Tonya Stoneman Helen Roseveare had just graduated from medical school when she moved to the Belgian Congo to serve as a doctor to local tribes. She built a hospital made of handcrafted bricks, stocked it with medicines, and for 12 years treated malnutrition, nursed lepers, delivered babies, and performed amputations. Her work there ended tragically with the onset of a blood revolution. On August 8, 1964, the Republic of...
God’s Covenant, Opened Eyes, A King’s Decree
Consider THIS from a Friend: "If you doubt that GOD could love you and still allow you to experience difficulties in life, look at JESUS' life. Born sinless, went 33 years without sinning 1 time, GOD spoke aloud 2 times saying how proud HE was of HIM. ROMANS 6:23-26, 5:8, 10:9-10, EPHESIANS 2:8-9 And look what JESUS went through and as a lamb to slaughter, never said a word. In Romans 8:35 when the Bible says, "Who can separate us from the love of CHRIST." It's talking about JESUS' love for us and then it makes a list that proves nothing can separate us from CHRIST! If we allow the death,...
What Programs Work?
CBB 8/6/2017 When asked what programs "work", my response is that any of them work, if one actually works the program. Readiness and commitment are vital..... After missing a couple of days with students due to a cold this week I went to Titus 2 yesterday for an impromptu class on Boundaries. Our topics? Resilience. Values. Ethics systems. It was a good discussion. Afterward, I had a very vivid dream last night in which I was having to deal with many of the same types of issues with two new women who had come to Titus 2 after completing another program and whose former leaders were trying to...
Hedonism vs. Christianity
From 8/6/17- Shared by Kimmy Hoffman Brown How much do you know? HEDONISM VERSUS CHRISTIANITY Hedonism has continued as a significant philosophy, and more important, as a pattern of life, up to this day. One thing should be noted here: hedonism is a secular philosophy, and it is usually found in the company of humanistic and materialistic interpretations of life. It would be difficult for us to find a way of life more antithetic to Christianity than this. Hedonism is the philosophy of selfishness. It is man serving himself. It is the ego enthroned and at times deified. Christianity is just...
Cultural Deceptions
I had previously explored the cultural deception revealed through common use of language that would have one think of herself as primarily identifying with the physical self in the physical realm http://disciplerofself.com/bible-study/not-so-little-things/ and the need to think biblically instead of through the lens of cultural deceptions. 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 "May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it." I think...
Go!
In every one of the Gospel accounts Jesus told his followers to GO! Go and make disciples....go and preach...go and proclaim the kingdom....go and bear fruit.... The Gospel is an action-focused imperative to GO. Matthew 28:19: Therefore GO and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Mark 16:15 He said to them, GO into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Luke 9: 60: GO and proclaim the kingdom of God. John 15:16: I chose you and appointed you so that you might GO and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so...