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.
Four Musicians
Four Musicians In the past week I have been privileged to hear the unique musical styles of four musicians. Last Monday evening at Celebrate Recovery, Kyle Paxton shared his testimony of faith in Christ and how he came to possess a beautiful hammered dulcimer. He showed artwork that represented his imaginings of heaven, played the dulcimer, and encouraged us with his witness to Christ’s presence and faithfulness in his life. I purchased a CD of his music and have been enjoying it this week. At times it sounds like piano. Other times it sounds like guitar, brass bells, carillon,...
Post Acute Withdawal Syndrome and use of medications in recovery
The article below on Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome makes some interesting points. One observation by counselors at Titus 2 is that many who come to long term recovery from detox feel badly for quite a while. For many it may even take two to three months to feel “clear” in their heads, experience improving memory and focus, and start to feel better. Often, too, however, they begin to feel physical symptoms that have been masked by their drug use like dental pain, joint pain, back pain, headaches, and more. This can cause distress, even depression, for those in recovery as they struggle to...
Treating Depression as a Co-occurring issue in Addiction
Allow me to editorialize about the reported new policy of a local recovery program of not allowing even commonly prescribed SSRIs for depression to be used by their clients in recovery.....This is, in my opinion, unfortunate and unnecessary and will lead to more people being unable to access needed recovery help. Is this a move to improve "success rates" to one's reported goal of 80% in order to secure more corporate and community financial support or is it a religious dog...ma that denies the power of God to use medical science as one of many means of grace and healing? What is the...
Mischief or Coincidence?
A couple of months ago we were awakened in the early morning hours by the sound of a lamp crashing to the floor when an unlatched tilt-in window blew open in a thunderstorm. On another morning I had heard an unusual noise and, upon checking, found that the glass door of an antique curved front cabinet in the adjacent sitting room (that I had moved from home to home for 42 years) had simply cracked into two pieces. Did a cat running through there hit it, perhaps? I didn't...hear or see one. What could possibly explain such a bizarre thing? This morning at 4:10am we were suddenly awakened...
Great Beginnings, Memorable Endings
In my experience, it is the first line of books that sets the tone and makes a book memorable. Here are some specific examples from memorable books of my life: - “It’s not about you.” (The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren) - “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…..” (A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens) - "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (The Bible) - “Life is difficult.” (The Road Less Traveled, M. Scott Peck) - “We begin life with loss.” (Necessary Losses, Judith Viorst) - “I have always...
Principles and Principalities…..
The Isaac PrincipleSeveral years ago I read Carol Kent's book, "When I Lay My Isaac Down." From that and other things God was using in my life at the moment, I discovered what I have come to call The Isaac Principle: It is in the surrendering of something that we love (even cherish and desire and hold fast in our hearts as a promise from God) entirely to God that we discover the true condition of our hearts.....If we cannot surrender it entirely to Him, it may, in fact, ...be an idolatrous obstacle between God and us. I have realized, too, as Abraham did, that just because God calls us to...
“To understand…”
What is your first thought of the morning upon awaking? (besides one's bladder screaming "Get up and go.") This morning mine was "He hastens and chastens His will to make known." It is a line from a hymn of the season, "We Gather Together" (Celebration Hymnal #790):We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing; he chastens and hastens ... his will to make known. The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing. Sing praises to his name, he forgets not his own. Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining, ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine; so from the beginning the fight we were...
“And, lo, I am with you always…”
"God doesn’t love you any less when you throw a temper tantrum. He doesn’t owe you an explanation, but he is never afraid of what you have to say. So tell him. It’ll be the beginning of healing." -- Pastor Rick Warren Yesterday in a prayer group, the facilitator asked us when did we come to the realization that God is ALWAYS WITH US? As I thought about it, after I became a born-again Christian there were situations and states of mind/emotion in which I was uncomfortable with the thought that God WAS always with me! I believed that I had to be in a posture and state of mind of...
I Am Thine, O Lord…..
From time to time a student will ask me about dreams.....does God speak to us through them. My response is, "Sometimes." Well, how do you know? I tell them that, in my experience, if a dream seems particularly clear and memorable, that is the first clue. If the meaning is not just abundantly clear in the moment based on one's own understanding, but it seems to persist and invite examination, then one should consider that God has given the dream and ask God for the meaning. And even if you think you know the meaning, ask God to confirm that your understanding is correct. My experience is that...
Daddy’s Girl
"To say that one is wholly and undeniably happy is to lie. For how are we, such shallow beings, to determine those things which have gone to the utter depths of our souls and left them scarred with sorrow? Does not every singular happening that we perceive affect us? There is no way to sort those affectations into bundles and say which ones we shall one day be forced to recall- and regret! Did not God impart to each of us a bit of himself? It may be so encumbered by human actions and thoughts that it is quite unable to be seen. But it is there, even so. Because of this fiber of deity in each...