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.
God works in mysterious ways…..
Whenever I talk about faith and healing with students, I remind them that God uses a variety of means to accomplish healing and that healing itself can be of many types. God certainly uses the miraculous processes within our bodies that He designed and crafted into our DNA and all that it produces and directs. God can most certainly also miraculously and inexplicably touch us by His grace and make whole that which was not whole just an instant before. And God can use the wisdom and skill that He has called and equipped dedicated practitioners with and the technology that He has...
Sad, but true…..
My husband serves on the board of a local agency that promotes and provides educational opportunities for preschool children. He's been telling me for some time about the studies on how children who are read to from a young age develop language and reasoning skills compared to those whose lives are devoid of books and reading.Today I was with a young mother and her 2 year old child. I suggested that she read him a book to entertain and comfort him. She looked at me as if I'd suggested she jump over the moon. She said to me that she is not a good reader and had never read a book to any of her...
The joy of playing in the dirt….
The spring ritual of filling pots with colorful flowers was mostly accomplished this weekend. With each plant selected I was thinking of my grandmothers and mother, their yards, the care they gave to them. It's funny how smells like potting soil and flower blossoms and the sound of water spraying into a watering can triggers so many memories in my mind.There's something very satisfying and comforting to me in participating in this little spring ritual. And I get to enjoy the results for months. When my hands are busy in the dirt, my mind is calm. It is very soothing and therapeutic. If I had...
Spiritual malnutrition…..
In my last post, I had written about the necessity of learning to feed ourselves, spiritually. This devotional arrived in my box this week from The Master's Business wirter, Lorraine Ezell. She details a couple of types of spiritual malnutrition. I agree with her completely!Coffee Break : "Malnutrition""For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears." 2 Timothy 4:3The word malnutrition is defined as: "lack of proper nutrition; inadequate or unbalanced nutrition." When we think of...
Manna and feeding ourselves….
This week I was having a one-on-one session on discipleship with one of our recovery program student interns. She is working an evening shift at the mission shelter and isn't able to attend the Monday evening class. It was a good session. I shared with her information from the REVEAL study conducted in over 500 churches by WillowCreek Church in Chicago that showed that church satisfaction increases for people in the early to middle stages of their Christian journey (seekers, new believers, and early committeds), but actually declines for those who've entered the maturing discipleship stage....
My turtle friends….
My husband, Bill, has dubbed me a turtle conservationist. I carry a plastic pad in the back of my SUV so that I can rescue errant turtles that make their way onto the roadways around our area. I've rescued some big ones and some small ones. Once a toddler grandaughter was with me and she squealed with delight when we rescued a turtle from a side street and relocated it to a marsh a few blocks away. She talked about the turtle for the next several visits.This weekend Bill's friend from Nashville, Pete, was here visiting and, while fishing off our dock, he hooked a turtle that tried to snag...
This is a test…..
When people change their email addresses or change service providers, they may send out a "test" message. They want to make sure that their messages are coming through, that they are still connected to others. The perception of the internet seems to be that it is such an immediate and intimate form of communication......but is it really?Here in the blog world some of the posters put a gadget on their page entitled "followers" to show who among their online network visits their blog. I've put that gadget on my weblog a few times for days or weeks at the time. Only one person has logged in as...
Speaking of trees…..
Recently, I was visiting with a woman about her spiritual growth. She expressed grief over how, in spite of her faith in God, she had repeatedly relapsed in her alcohol addiction. As we talked about her spiritual life, something occurred to me and I shared with her the following information. God uses several images of trees in scripture. One image is that of the stately, solitary "oak of righteousness", growing by the river and putting roots down deeply into the earth. The other is the image of cedars, a coniferous species that, instead of deep taproots, put out an intricate web of shallower...
Only God can make a tree….
From Friday mid-afternoon to Saturday evening, I drove for 16 hours, with a night's sleep and several stops for food along the way to delivering grandchildren back to their parent's care. The drive was mostly up Interstate 65 through the state of Alabama and south Tennessee. As I have observed on several occasions, the variety of shades of green in the spring always delights me. This April excursion was a pure joy as I observed the variety of trees along the roadside. I had heard one time that Alabama enjoys the distinction of having the greatest diversity of tree species of any state in the...
The Way of the Beatitudes….
(This post contains some information from a post in October 2008) For several years I have taught the Beatitudes as a process through which one goes from brokenness to healing, spiritually and emotionally. Since it is my practice to consider the spiritual aspect of a person first, this way of helping a person understand herself and how God is working in her life is the prelude to discussing other aspects of the individual's life. I first came to understand the Beatitudes this way as a result of a period of brokenness in my own life and through my study of the Beatitudes. Later, I read Martyn...