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.
What I said isn’t what you heard….
I had the opportunity last week to perform a comedy routine at a women's retreat. One of the lines in the routine has to do with friendship. It goes like this: "Friends are a lot like a parachute. If they're not there the first time that you need them, odds are you won't be needing them again."I thought it was a good line and would elicit some laughs. However, when I delivered the line, the women just looked at one another with puzzled looks, so I moved on to the next line.Afterward, I sat down to have lunch with them and discovered the reason for the puzzled looks. I had delivered the line...
There, by and with the grace of God, shall go I…….
In a class on adult ministry that I am taking we are in the unit on senior adults. There is a self-awareness inventory that asks us to indicate on a scale of 1-5 the number that best expresses our feelings between two extremes about the statement, "When I think of older people, I think of people who are....." and then lists seventeen attributes and their corresponding opposites, such as kind/uncaring, friendly/grumpy, rigid/tolerant, fast/slow, greedy/ generous, etc. The numbers correlate to "1= strong agreement with the word on the left" to "5= strong agreement with the word on the right"....
Smaller is……..
I have had the spacious, dual-bowled, mirror-walled, garden- tubbed, glass-enclosure showered bathroom. Now, in our little two bedroom 1973 lakeside cottage we have two very efficient little 6'X8'-ish bathrooms. And I have rediscovered the joy of 'small' living.I can have an entire bathroom guest-ready in 5 minutes! Using only 6 paper towels, a can of Comet, a spray bottle of bathroom cleaner and a toilet bowl brush I can tidy up so fast even I can appear to be a model housekeeper! One paper towel for the mirror, one for the countertop and sink, one for the toilet seat and lid, and three for...
Going home……
My goodness! Where did the last month go? I know that a significant number of hours in the last thirty or so days have been passed in the pleasant duty of keeping the two youngest of our five grandchildren. They have been regulars in our home as they (and their parents) were "in transit" between the old home, sold a while back, and the new home being built for them. Recently, I delivered the two of them to their new home with much excitement all around. When we left my house for the roughtly five hour drive, the oldest (4) began to give me a town by town recitation of our route, up to and...
Purses with holes….
Haggai 1:5b-6, “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” (NIV)Last Monday was my 53rd birthday. I received a number of cards from friends and family. Several of them had purses on the front. One friend wrote inside her colorful purse card to me that this particular card, "looked like me". I realize that, from time to time, a particular motif captures the interest of cardmarkers,...
Answered prayers…..
My consult with a retinal specialist was moved up to yesterday. My 4 1/2 year old grandson had prayed with his parents and sisters and had been led by God to ask that this would be "just a spot, not a sickness." Thankfully, his prayers (and those of many others) have been answered. I feel blessed to have had so many people lifting me up in prayer. It was a great support. What a privilege to join in bearing one another's burdens that way!Today I was privileged to serve on a prayer team for a women's retreat, to be in a prepared room for the express purpose of praying with attendees who...
Craftsmen and professionals……
The following quote is from a February 21, 2007, Townhall column by Cal Thomas, writing about the rise of “anti-heroes” and the proliferation of mindless, prurient entertainment focused on the lives of celebrities whose lives both shock us and seem to provide justification for us for our own decline in morals…..“…To some extent this has always been so, but television has made gawking easier and the objects of gawking more accessible. This indulgence in the base and banal has had a corrosive effect on our collective spirit. It also lowers our defenses against those who would destroy us.It...
The view….
Did you ever have a moment when you felt yourself standing on a prominence with a clear view of two vastly different possibilities for your life without the slightest inclination of which one will be yours? That is the kind of day I had today.Just this week I'd gotten some direction on the possibility of returning to school for a master's degree in counseling, something I've been toying with for several months. I'd spent last night actually organizing my thoughts for that possibility- finding out about requesting undergraduate transcripts, revising my resume for an interview Tuesday with a...
For landmarks and little boys…
It's been a wonderful holiday with grandchildren visiting. This week I was carting three of them back north to meet up with their parents for their return home. Along the way we made several stops. At one interstate exit with which I was unfamliar, I was on the exit ramp and looking around somewhat anxiously for which direction to go to get to a fast food restaurant that was indicated on the highway sign. It was a four laned Walmart exit and was very busy. As I came to the rise of the exit ramp, there to my right, rising above all the other signs, clearly and unmistakably, were the golden...
No longer tolerating ‘tolerance’…..
Recently, as part of a class in Christian Education basics, I had to do some reading on diversity. Over the several weeks that I was working on this class unit, I had considerable generalized discomfort that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Then, at the end of the class I had to prepare a workshop for the group based on a unit in the course. I chose the diversity unit. I had finally put my finger on the source of my discomfort.As I read the materials on diversity I realized that the language we use to promote diversity sets up a mindset that works against the very thing we seek. The word...