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.
More on shoes…..
Every few years I just happen to have the time and opportunity to hit the 70% off end of summer shoe sale at a local department store. I have written before about my considerably curtailed former bad habit of having tons of shoes. Since I implemented a practice of "one pair in, one pair out", my closet clutter no longer continues to abound. 3-4 years ago I hit this sale on Labor Day by serendiptious accident and purchased three pair of solid dark nondesript sandals (at VERY reasonable prices) that I have now worn to a frazzle. Two pair had become embarrassingly scuffed and frayed. The sole...
How did that happen?
We are cat people. We have two adult cats that have called us their people for about 7 and 4 years, respectively. They mostly reside outdoors, except on the coldest days of winter when they'll slip in and sleep under our bed. Then we have a new 10 week old kitten, Little Bit, who keeps us entertained and stays indoors, as he is too small to evade the hawk, owl, and other predators that make their way around the edge of our wooded neighborhood. This morning I started the day as I usually do, filling the bowl just inside the back door with cat crunchies after the nightly feeding by our outdoor...
Movin’ ’em through…..
Goodness, the times are hard! Everyday the Panama City Rescue Mission is getting calls from families who are losing their apartments or homes and needing emergency shelter while they regroup. As the Women and Families Manager, the responsibility for overseeing their case management comes to me. We have only 2 family rooms in which to house them. Today we vacated both rooms, moving one family into temporary transitional housing and the other into a permanent situation. Before the rooms had even gotten cleaned, we had families lined up to move into them for 5 nights of emergency shelter and...
Reading time….
In my last post I noted that a book entitled "Unfashionable" had caught my interest and I was looking forward to reading it. Well, I didn't get around to it over the weekend and now I'm into my first module for my first course in basic graduate theological studies through Asbury Seminary's online program. It looks as though I will have quite a bit of reading to accomplish in 2-week increments from now until December 13. Oh, well, so much for personal choice of reading.I enjoy reading mostly non-fiction. Also, I'm a bit of a news junky and enjoy perusing several internet news sites, as well...
Unfashionable…..
My Mother brought me a slim little book with a nondescript black jacket and the puzzling title "Unfashionable". I thought to myself, "What in the world is this about?" She said she thought I would enjoy it. When I opened it I found a quote by Charles Spurgeon that had apparently been the seed that grew into this book by the grandson of Billy Graham, William Graham TullianTchividjian."The great guide of the world is fashion and its god is respectability - two phantomsat which brave men laugh! How many of you look around on society to know whatto do? You watch the general current and then...
Miraculous pregnancies…..
This morning on a national Christian radio program, the husband and wife team were presenting questions about "miraculous pregnancies" in the Bible and inviting listeners to call in with answers. The segment I heard was about Elisha and the Shunemite woman (2 Kings 4:7-9). It was interesting to me that this particular topic happened to be on the radio this morning because just ten minutes before I had been on the phone with a young woman who was telling me an incredible story about her own pregnancy.A week ago she had gone to the doctor, after having a positive outcome on an over-the-counter...
Heroes of the Faith….
In the course of teaching on service and spiritual gifts, I often refer to Rick Warren's S.H.A.P.E. format- spiritual gifts, "heart" (or passion), abilities, personality, and experiences.One of the things that I think is so important in that process is the "experiences" part. We must learn to consecrate our past to God, surrender it to Him, so that we can have those confusing and often painful experiences reinterpreted through God's redemptive work in our present lives. Coming to accept that the experiences of our lives have been allowed by God can be a confusing concept for young Christians...
Smile 🙂
I had written in February (Be careful of the appearances you give...2/10/09) about becoming aware of how I seem to appear to others to be always busy and how that contributes to the appearance of unapproachability to people. It's been on my mind more and more. There have been at least 4-5 times recently at church when I was going from a classroom to the office or delivering attendance folders to classes that someone would simply say to me, "Smile!" I have decided that I must have a "determined" countenance that looks overly stern or uninviting to others. I have noticed in recent months a...
Life in the church…..
Working as program manager for a Christian women's recovery program is a joy. Most of the time the women coming to us are ready for a real change in their lives and, having tried so many other routes, are now ready to give God's way a chance. Yesterday, however, I had a conversation with a young woman who, having submitted an application, was now deciding whether or not she wanted to come into our program. When I asked her about her faith life, she first told me she was agnostic. Then she said that, although she believed in God and, in fact, felt she had a personal relationship with God, she...
Summer days long ago…..
This weekend we had our three oldest grandchildren visiting- ages 12, 10 1/2, and 7. We spent much of the weekend sitting out by the lake where they swam, played on a float, and rode a SeaDoo for hours at the time with their mom and dad.It brought back happy memories for me. When I was in 4th grade and a few years older, I would visit Lake Blackshear in Georgia with a friend of mine who lived across the street. Her grandparents lived on the lake, in a house not too unlike the one we now live in. They had a floating dock that we could untie and paddle out into the middle of the lake and...