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.
Be careful of the appearances you give….
I am a busy person. I like being busy. And I enjoy the satisfaction of getting things checked off my to do list. But more and more I realize that I may just be giving off vibes that I am too busy for the people who actually are the more important part of my daily life. One can be so task focused and engaged that people perceive them as unavailable. This was brought home to me once again this week. I had a unexpected opportunity to pick up a student and bring her home from a work site. On the way we had a nice time chatting. She shared things that were a pleasant surprise about her future...
Neighborliness…..
In the early hours before dawn my husband had to catch a flight. Neither of us slept well, waiting for the 4:00am alarm to ring and preparing for the dash out the door. So, by the time the alarm rang, we were both up moving about, him getting dressed, me packing for him. We were both getting things together and into the suitcase and vehicle. We were hurrying along trying very hard to meet the airline's deadline for check in. As we arrived at the airport we realized we had left home with his suitcase, but had forgotten the briefcase, each of us thinking the other had it as we loaded up. I...
A new month, a new cold….
I'm in the midst of my third cold in about as many months. It may be my imagination, but they seem to follow visits with grandchildren. Exposure to unfamiliar strains of cold viruses, perhaps? Maybe it's just that, after months and months of burning the candle at both ends, my immune system is sagging. At least I seem to be getting over this one a little faster. I've actually tried to get more rest with this one and been more conscientious about taking vitamins and cold meds to battle the symptoms. Unfortunately, though, I seem to have passed it on to my husband. Poor baby! Now we are taking...
A household amiss….
The cats, all four of them, have sensed the change in our household since Abby's departure Friday morning. We've put away her beds and gathered up her snacks and toys. But it's more than that.One of our older cats, Patty, is quite feral and does not allow Bill or me near her. But how she loved Abby! She would weave in and out of Abby's legs and nuzzle her. She would follow Abby around the yard wanting her to play. Abby tolerated the little cat rubbing all over her, but one had the sense that she seemed a little humiliated by Patty's attention. Patty hasn't come around to eat the last two...
Saying goodbye…..
Last night was a long night for my husband and me. Our little 15 year old mixed terrier mutt, who's been declining for the last year, awakened us shortly after midnight in great distress. She was obviously in pain. We got her and ourselves together and to the emergency vet on call, which happened to be our own familiar doctor. By the time we got there, she had calmed down somewhat and there was no clear diagnostic indication of what had happened to her, just a generalized anxiety that the vet said looked like post seizure behavior. We opted to have her treated with a dose of valium and wait...
Jumping through hoops…..
When I was in junior high and high school, I played basketball. I was pretty good, making the varsity team as a freshman. Later I was a cheerleader. I was reasonably athletic. But that was many years (and pounds) ago. Today I wear a pedometer and hope to achieve a respectable number of steps so that I'm not labeled as "sedentary". Today I officially began the process of preparing for ordination as a deacon by working through the candidacy book with my assigned mentor. It was a couple of hours of sharing our personal faith journeys with one another. At one point I came to a question in the...
Holiness and a Mont Blanc pen…..
A couple of years ago a friend gave my husband and me really nice Mont Blanc pens. Bill's is a ball point pen; mine is a cartridge fountain pen. I enjoy using it and generally keep it clipped inside my journal. Several days ago, I apparently left it lying on the table beside my chair, next to the journal and one or both of our kittens, now dubbed Dora and Diego, got it and managed to loosen the cap from the pen. Thankfully, there was no damage to the pen and no ink leaked out, but the cap was lost. I searched and searched all over the den, fussing and fuming all the while, angry at the...
Leaping or plodding…..
In recent months, as I completed graduate school and UMC certification studies and sought employment opportunities, I had been feeling a nagging impulse to take the next step in the UMC church toward a local pastor license as a means to being legitimately entitled to counsel with some official pastoral authority. As I talked to members of the district board of ministry, I was advised to consider ordination as a deacon instead. When I looked into it, it seemed to make sense. So I met with the district board of ministry and advised them of my interest in pursuing ministry as an ordained...
Lambs and broken legs…..
In my job I work with individuals in substance abuse recovery. While in the program they take several classes on spiritual topics from books that are familiar to many - Purpose Driven Life, Crown Financial, Changes that Heal, Boundaries, etc. Several of them are currently in a discipleship class called "Sheep to Shepherd". As I talk with them about what they are studying in various classes, I have been impressed how almost to a person, the ones in "Sheep to Shepherd" mention, almost immediately, the reference in Psalm 51:8, "Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed...
The old fashioned way……small delights
When I was a child, if a part of a piece of equipment broke, one sought out a replacement part. One didn't have the financial luxury to simply replace the entire piece of equipment. Increasingly, it appears, our culture has developed a "disposable" mindset. If anything goes awry, just junk the whole thing and buy a new one. So why does this come to mind?I have a Westbend slow cooker that is a four piece unit- heating base with power cord, retangular metal cookpot, and a top. I inherited the cooker from my mother-in-law. It was already well used by the time I married into the family in 1972,...