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.
AI v. Human
"What’s one thing you do that AI can’t do? Or two things? Or three?" Spiritual Director and Writer’s Coach, Charlotte Byrd Donlon, posed this question in one of her recent “5 Good Things” newsletters that she sends out. It was a timely and unexpected challenge when I read it. The reason it seemed so timely was because of something that happened over the weekend that helped congeal some thoughts in my mind when I read her question. I went to dinner with a couple who are friends of mine. One of them is an IT specialist with a large governmental agency who has worked in support...
Foundational Triangles for a Whole Life
"Triangles are very strong shapes which makes them important when building strong and stable structures.” The notion of an “iron triangle” resonates with me, just as it does when a child picks up one to tap out a rhythm for the first time. Thinking of triangles stimulates reflection on the lowest common denominators observed in formation of strength, stability, value, and cohesion. This perspective of a three-point structure is the same concept that appealed to me about Dr. Mark Ragins book on counseling and journeying alongside people with serious mental health challenges like addiction,...
For Parents with “Littles”
😊 A friend with 2 babes under age 2 posted the below the other day and I immediately remembered those days! It also still applies to our older babes, it’s just different triggers. For younger elementary kids it’s learning rules, starting real curriculum, being around so many new people, longer days etc. For my mini who’s adjusting to high school and adding HS sports to club soccer, it’s going to school the full day, sometimes x2 practices and then homework until 10:30-11pm. Big hugs! "From the diary of a 2-year-old: Today I woke up and wanted to get dressed by myself but was told “No,...
Attending GMC Ordination: Experience and Reponse
To: Cathy Sunday, September 10, 2023 Regarding first ordination of clergy by Alabama-Emerald Coast Conference of The Global Methodist Church at St.James Methodist Church, Montgomery, AL "I thought of you many times this weekend. Almost every one of us had a story similar to yours, ordination denied in spite of education, experience, passion, and calling. Well in truth, I stopped trying before I was labeled unworthy and unwelcome. But I knew. I knew I would never be approved by them while knowing absolutely that I was called and approved by God. Just as you were. Yesterday was very healing...
10,000 Reasons and Seasons
In the parable of the 4 soils, it was sowing seed in good soil that produced a yield. Today as we considered evangelism in our worship service, the pastor reminded us of the bible's promise of return on investment from witnessing to the power of Christ in our lives. "And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” He noted that a hundredfold would a 10,000 percent return. That number, 10,000 , reminded me a song that plays in my head a lot: ,,,,,,You’re rich in love And You’re slow to anger...
What We Take For Granted
Two more books arrived at my house today..... What we take so for granted was a technological revolution in its day........... Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. Proverbs 7:3 “When Johannes Gutenberg combined the printing press with moveable type in 1450, he ushered in the era of mass communications in the West, spreading learning into new social realms. Literacy increased across the globe and new ideas produced rapid transformations in social and religious contexts. Gutenberg produced the first-ever printed version of the Bible. Prior to this, Bibles were...
God: “I will be the husband of my people.”
From Ezekiel 36 "9For behold, I am on your side; I will turn toward you, and you will be tilled and sown. 10 I will multiply the people upon you—the house of Israel in its entirety. The cities will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt. 11 I will fill you with people and animals, and they will multiply and be fruitful. I will make you as inhabited as you once were, and I will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the LORD. 12Yes, I will cause My people Israel to walk upon you; they will possess you, and you will be their inheritance, and you will no longer deprive them...
Thoughts, Motives, Actions, Impact. God’s or Mine?
Love, love, love this meme above .... It is a lovely image that goes along with God's instruction to my heart (posted in my weblog) about maritime metaphors...... http://disciplerofself.com/conflict/battleships-and-fishin-boats1/ When I had read Johm 6, (right after the part about feeding the multitude), in my younger years, I always focused on the image of Jesus coming to the disciples, walking on the water in the storm. In John 6:15-17, the Word says THEY left. The disciples left. "Jesus therefore perceiving that they (the multitudes they had just fed) were intending to come and take Him...
Wicked Authority
This brief meditation below on Proverbs 29:2 comes from an Emmaus friend who has shared her morning meditations with some of us through email for years. For maximum impact go read the entire text of Proverbs 29. It is enlightening. God always knows what one needs. This resonated with and touched me at every level of my life where authority has been existent over me...... in my own soul in my family in my educational experiences in employment in ministry in my civic life-city, state, nation in my common humanity At every level, God is the one who has created and ordained authority according...
Solitaire
Solitaire I attended the wedding of a friend .... retired and a few years younger than me. Our circumstances of singleness are different - divorced versus widowed. As I watched her excitement and joy, I thought to myself, "I can't even imagine life in another relationship." It's been two years since Bill's death and the reality of singleness is fully present to me. I'm as comfortable being "just me" among couple-friends as with single friends and I'm content in my home and with the activities of my life. I realized this week that the ever-present "our" reference in relation to grandchildren...