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.
Dying moments, new beginnings…..
"Dying moments, new beginnings" is a phrase that describes a communion celebration that many of us associated with The Walk to Emmaus will recognize. It defines what we, in our Christian lives, do again and again as we experience the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit. Time and time again we find ourselves dying to some aspect of the flesh and beginning new life in yet another aspect of our spiritual selves in the Spirit as we grow into the likeness of Christ.As I begin a new phase of my life, retraining for a new career, I am having to turn loose of some things that have been part of my...
Connecting the dots…..
Jill Carattini is a senior writer for the Ravi Zacharias Int'l Ministries in Atlanta, Ga. I enjoy her columns greatly. She always seems to express so beautifully things that I have thought or felt.Her column today speaks of the delightful transparency of children, how you can see it on their faces as they "make connections from one dot of information to another." That is one of the joys of being a grandparent. One has the time and distance with which to watch that process happening. It seemed to have gotten lost in the daily demands and responsibilities of raising our own children.On a...
Not a case of “whatever floats your boat”…..
I was reading recently from How People Change by Timothy Lane and David Tripp. In it they describe some of the manifestations of "Christian externalism", their description of the things people do to try to fill the "gospel gap" that subverts their identity as Christians and keeps them from understanding the present work of God in their lives. They describe formalism, legalism, mysticism, activism, Biblicism, psychology-ism, and social-ism as attractive pretensions, plausible lies that look real enough to be the real thing but are not.They go on to state that each of these -isms is appealing...
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...