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.
Lost and Found
A beautiful reflection by Sarah Westfall....... worth the read. I remember the year I was 29 was much like this, full of uncertainty. I wish turning 30 had resolved it, but I spent much of my 30's like the dandelion seeds, blowing in the wind. It would be approaching 40 that gave me a place to land and begin to find my footing again. And each of the next three decades have only furthered that grounding and growth. On the precipice of 70 I have gotten much better at letting go and I know the signs of seasons' changes. But the anticipation of change no longer leaves me as anxious, uncertain,...
Culture of Violence
From post on July 30, 2020....in observing "the summer of love" among "mostly peaceful protestors".... Whoa...... now here’s a racist conspiracy theory quote if I ever saw one: read in an article about black violence in Chicago..... “..blacks killing blacks. So what? What is that to whitey?” You’d almost think someone might think they feel they’ve been ghettoized into urban death traps by state or federal government administrations with no means of escape for just that purpose? To kill each other? Looking at the city and state and media lack of concern or response to the violence in...
Dr. Timothy Tennent…. Moses: The Great Deliverer
Another great article by Dr. Timothy Tennent of Asbury Theological Seminary...... Moses: The Great Deliverer Deut. 5:6-21; Acts 3:17-26; Matt. 5:17-20 "The theological structure of the Old Testament serves to prefigure Christ, Who is the subject of redemptive history. We have begun to see a great redemptive trajectory with Christ as the second Adam. The Fall was the fellowship of the rebellion; “Not Your will, but mine be done.” The fruit in the Garden of Eden was an anti-sacrament. The second Adam, Christ, in the second Garden, Gethsemane, said, “Not My will, but Yours be done.” This is the...
Honestly…..
Things I have learned and am required to address regularly: With women in recovery, I find that they have a very "loose" definition of "lie". Lying by omission appears to never be considered a lie to them. Being presumptuous in willfully undertaking a behavior that may not explicitly be a violation of the letter of a rule, but certainly is a violation of the spirit of the rule, or which they have not been specifically and explicitly and personally told they couldn't do, is never a lie. In other words, they will test the limits of every rule's application. Pleading ignorant with "I didn't...
Tree Connections
Loved watching a TED talk by Suzanne Simard about her 30 years of research in forests in Canada on how trees communicate with one another and transfer molecular nutrients through microrhizzal networks. I'm an arboreal enthusiast, having spent lots of time in Alabama, which has the greatest number of tree varieties in the US. Love, love, love the varieties of deciduous and evergreens I've enjoyed over the years. Turns out that trees are supercooperators, with "mother tree" nodes and extensive cross species underground support structures that nurture understory tress and new seedlings. Her...
Life Stages
This was part of a memoir I wrote in mid December 2020 as I was preparing for my move to PC Beach near my son and daughter-in-law…… today I have been into PC for errands and returned to my quiet little cul-de-sac so conveniently located. As I approach the first anniversary of Bill’s death, I grieve. But I praise God with gratitude, too, for the way His hand has guided me and the provision He has made for me. I am grateful to have had Bill for 48 years. The years that are left ahead for me seem short by comparison. I will do my best to enjoy them and make good use of the time…… with God’s...
Are God’s Promises For Everyone?
Question from a friend: God told his people he'd restore what the locusts took and told Job he'd restore his joy and he also made promises to Abraham and Moses and others. Just because he did it for them doesn't mean he'll do it for EVERYBODY.... A lot of people never found joy, never had lives restored and were killed. Is there a book with all the promises of God and do they apply to EVERYBODY that believes? Reply as I considered this question: I understand God's blessings as fulfillment of promises that are communicated to and available to all. Every promise I read has an invitation that...
Henry Cloud on Boundaries
From Dr Henry Cloud "Being emotionally present and connected while we are confronting another person is the first essential of a good conversation. It truly requires a work of grace in us. Being present refers to being in touch and in tune with our own feelings as well as those of the other person. This is an important skill, because when we are "there"—that is, emotionally present—we are available to the other person. They are not shut off from us while we are telling them a difficult reality about themselves and the relationship. It is hard for anyone to absorb a confrontation. Presence...
Poetry As Prayer
Writer Sarah Westfall writes about praying through poetry: "In the thick of 2020, I found it difficult to pray. Words with God did not come easily, stalling and falling short each time I tried to gather them together into sentences. And while I knew God is in the silence, it was as if my soul was searching for something more, something on the other side of the fog that had settled in my brain and body. That’s when I began to write poems. Early in the morning, I sat in the quiet and let my senses ground me in the moment. I named what I heard, saw, smelled, and felt, letting the cadence of the...
Discipleship or Counseling?
At one point a young husband reported that his wife, who was seeing a Christian counselor at the time, was benefitting from what had become more of a discipleship relationship than a therapeutic counseling relationship. I realized that my years in relationship with a Christian counselor were much the same thing...discipleship. This was once widely done in extended families and community churches where aunts, cousins, grandmothers, Sunday school teachers, Bible study leaders, pastors' wives, volunteers, and others fulfilled discipleship roles in younger women's lives. Today we have paid...