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.
Prayer During COVID-19
Posting this a.m., 6/24/2020...vSeems appropriate. "The world is in an uproar, but God is still on His throne. Fear and anxiety have gripped many hearts, but you still have access to God's powerful presence. May you find rest in Him today. Hatred spreads, and the enemy spews, but you serve the God of the breakthrough. Are you listening for His voice? He speaks peace to His people. He's your hiding place--a shelter from the storm. He’s moving in your midst even now. Do you believe it? Perceive it? How much bad news do you process before you lose heart and lose faith? It's time to steward your...
Vonnegut: Perspective on Failure
By Kurt Vonnegut: (posted 12/21/2020 by Michael Busch) “When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of “getting to know you” questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject? And I told him, no I don’t play any sports. I do theater, I’m in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art 12/classes. And he went WOW. That’s amazing! And I said, “Oh no, but I’m not any good at ANY of them.” And he said something then that I will never...
Life Under and Beyond Roe
From my 1960's teen coming-of-age years until 1992, I was strongly pro-choice in my social views on abortion. In 1992, the Lord gently spoke in my spirit and I had a total 180 degree change of heart.. It resulted in significant changes in my thinking about a lot of things. Now,30 years later, I am seeing historic changes in policies on abortion as Roe v Wade is rolled back and authority is returned to states. I am pleased to say that our own eldest granddaughter, born 5 years after my change of heart, had been active for three years on the life team of a legal non-profit agency that had a...
Worthy Quotes: Charles Krauthammer
GO WHERE THE EVIDENCE TAKES YOU. “I was a Great Society liberal. I thought we ought to help the poor, we ought to give them all the money we can. And then, the evidence started to pour in. The evidence of how these grand programs, the poverty programs, the welfare programs--everything was making things worse. I didn't have a dog in that fight. I was willing to go where the evidence led. As a doctor, I'd been trained in empirical evidence. If the treatment is killing your patients, you stop the treatment.” Charles Krauthammer "You're betraying your whole life if you don't say what you...
We Be Hypocrites
A lot of people tell me they don't go to church because they don't want to feel like hypocrites. Well, why the heck not? Feeling the convicting work of the Spirit might make you quit doing some of the things that make you feel that way. We all do some of those things at times. Definition of hypocrite 1-a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion. 2-a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings. If we don't do some of those things on a fairly regularly regular basis or, if we say we don't, we are lying to ourselves and one another. Jesus called...
Authenticity Incited Criticism
"If we were able to put aside our need for approval long enough to be authentic, then, surely, we would be living as the church.(Sheila Walsh)" This is a nice sentiment and has a Christian ring to it. i really appreciate Sheila Walsh and have great regard for her, but I do not think this sentiment is necessarily on target. What I have observed is that in being "authentic" with some people, most notably among many within the church, is that one simply hands the pharisees within the church fodder with which to judge a person and reject them for things they don't understand or that they...
Who Do You See When Looking Up From The Bottom?
Dr. Henry Cloud... What happens when we hit bottom...... "When we hit bottom, when we realize that this really is true, we "lose it." We break. And we cry. This sadness is the letting go of what was an idealized, expected reality, a hoped-for dream. It is saying goodbye to what can never be. But it is the beginning of true healing as well. .......... The emotional investment in whatever was lost is being given up. The wish and desire are being "counted as loss," as Paul said. We are letting go of what cannot be. Reality and our heart, mind, and soul have all come together, and we cry. Tears...
Jesus, Christ, Messiah
From E.Stanley Jones' "In Christ." (With some insertion of my SELF-talk as I read!) ".....we must explore what we mean by “Christ.” I came near saying “we must define,” but to define is to confine, and when we are dealing with the Eternal God manifested in the flesh, which I conceive Him to be, we can only explore—our definitions are departure points, eternally open to eternal explanations. We begin with Jesus, not with Christ, for you cannot say Christ until you have first said Jesus—the Incarnate One. For JESUS PUTS HIS OWN CHARACTER CONTENT INTO CHRIST! (CBB: Jesus' own uniqueness, His...
Good, Good Father
On this Father's Day, I think about my own Father, and His Father who died before I was born, my Mother's Father and some other special men who from time to time God put in my life and used to further flesh out the image of a "Good Father"... like the Father of the Prodigal Son, who was loving, generous, equitable, patient in waiting, trusting in God's purpose, plan, and timing and not withholding from either of his children what each most needed, even if it wasn't always what they, through words or actions, desired or believed was their sense of their destiny. But he was also wise and...
God’s Plan For The Boat
I will NOT quit........ trusting that God has a plan. I will keep trying everything I can to keep the boat afloat in the storm ..... while we wait for that plan to become clear..... Including jettisoning the ballast, lowering the sails, breaking away the mast, cutting free the lifeboats, until filnally all we can do is cling to boards to survive. But God will still have a plan It just may not include the boat. That didn’t seem to bother Paul. I wonder how the captain felt. The old adage is that the captain always goes down with the ship. In some cases to lose the ship is a death sentence...