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.
Thoughts at 11:11 on 11/11
Today’s date “11/11”. (CBB 11/11/25) I remember a Sunday morning when a young grade school friend walked into my church office and noticed the digital clock on my desk showed 11:11 as the time (which it does twice daily!) He exclaimed, “Quick, make a wish!” I asked what he meant. He shared with me that 11:11 or 1111 is a “lucky number”… If one makes a wish upon seeing it, the wish will come true. Since I don’t put much stock in luck or wishful thinking, I wondered how he had come to that conclusion. He said “Everybody says it.” In inquiring about it further, I discovered that it’s a pretty...
Eben Ezer and Cairns
In the hymn sung today in the Seedbed.com Wake Up Call devotional, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” JD Walt noted in it a reference to raising one’s Eben Ezer, a stone of remembrance as a testimony to God’s work on our behalf. Bill and I have had an Eben Ezer that has been with us since 1997. It is a large stone from a grandparents’ family homestead in Alabama, where both our family stories began. It was loaded on a trailer and delivered to our home at Country Club Ct. in Lynn Haven, FL by my parents as a remembrance of the steadfastness of “family”following a very difficult season in...
Laboring In Prayer
In a daily devotional online recently we covered a passage from Luke 22 regarding Christ’s prayer in the Mount of Olives before His arrest. Days later I’m still gleaning in the Luke 22 account of Jesus praying in agony with the knowledge of God’s will yet struggling with the desire to have it removed from Him. In His humanity, He is suffering, though He knows the reward that awaits, not only Himself but all humanity. As I have thought about Jesus being a stone’s throw away in prayer, even NOW, He is not praying for God’s will for Himself or His own strength to endure it. He has done that. It...
Basic Needs: Security and Significance
In classes teaching women about identity, we reference two driving needs of humans, security and significance. Robert McGee’s book, Search for Significance, is helpful as part of this effort. Security is rooted in the need to feel loved and accepted unconditionally. It is a desire to be known fully and accepted as we are, to be cherished and protected. Significance is rooted in having a sense of meaning and purpose, to be valued for one’s being, ability and strengths. Over the years I’ve observed that women will often subordinate their need for significance to another in order to obtain a...
Titus 2 Report October 2025
Titus 2 Activities-October 2025 10/4 Attended EquipHer workshop in PC Beach on Psalm Bible Study and Prayer. New tools, new friends. Delivered monthly Meals on Wheels route Provided personal items for woman temporarily homeless awaiting disability approval 10/9 Presented new Fruit of the Spirit lesson to women’s church group. Video done 10/11 Provided a family with utility assistance Referral to local resources for homeless man being assisted by church member. Referral also to long term recovery program. Consulted with recovery program director on scope of care considering medications and...
Not All Is As It Seems
Simple, but not easy…… truth. For years I have understood that life in the physical realm is created to mirror and reveal the spiritual realm. Mankind’s obsession with its own capacity for freewill and the presence of an anti-God enemy happy to deceive mankind warped and marred the original image. God has been patiently and determinedly redeeming the marred masterpiece. God, afterall, has no pressure of time. Only we, his created beings in the physical realm feel the constraining bonds and pressure of time. God has put patterns and principles in place that are useful in directing the...
Spirit of Offense
The spirit of offense is rampant among our children….such evil, such tragedy. How many of them have heard and seen verbal and physical violence in the home? Disrespect? Rejection of authority? Have no skills for impulse control or conflict resution? No willingness to talk through differences, forgive, and move forward? No love of self or neighbor? No value for life? Have been trained in only the dichotomy of victimizer or victim, oppressor or oppressed? Some live like their world is a war zone and its either kill or be killed….. In news this week: “A 15-year-old boy allegedly gunned down his...
Zaccheus Character
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JYs8sMqAs9c#:~:text=https://youtu.be/JYs8sMqAs9c?si=FSPCWQ3jlM951HHh In the daily Wake Up Call devotional from Seedbed on Sunday, 11/2/25, JD Walt directed us to the story in Luke of Zaccheus. He stirred a bit of discussion in the readers’ Facebook discussion group by suggestions Zaccheus was not necessarily the low-life sinner tax payer we’d all been told growing up. I responded in the discussion group to several who took issue with JD’s read of the story. After a day and a half of people weighing in, we’d done a lot of back and forth. I gathered my various...
God of All Comfort, Thank You.
Deep peace of the running wave to you.Deep peace of the flowing air to you. Deep peace of the quiet earth to you. Deep peace of the gentle night to you. Moon and stars pour their healing light on you.Deep peace of Christ, the light of the world, to you. Gaelic Blessing This is how I feel today. Last night I dreamed of Bill with me. It was a very real feeling of his presence.We were at home but the details of“home” seemed somewhat vague. It was perfect timing for such a comforting sense of his presence after quite a dry spell…… A few weeks ago I had wondered to myself if I would ever have...
New Respect For a Bumblebee
During this month of prayer and fasting we are focusing on the theme “Preparing the Way”. It suggests an active endeavor on our parts. And certainly there is a lot of activity underway in preparation for our move. And just as certainly, it is the consensus of our church that God has done the calling in this move. Therefore, we can rest assured that He is leading, preparing the way for us and guiding us as we explore the means and methods for accomplishing it. But today I want us to focus on what God has already done to prepare each of us individually for what lies ahead. Yesterday Stephanie...