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.
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...
Redux…..
On Oct 12, 2005 I'd written about the three places in scripture where we clearly see sin reduced to three types- lust of the flesh (physical appetites), lust of the eyes (acquisitive desires for material goods or power), and pride of life (egotism, desiring status in someone else's eyes). The three scriptures are Genesis 3:6,Matthew 4:1-10, and 1 John 2:16-17. In Rick Warren/ John Baker's Celebrate Recovery's lesson last week, as a part of beginning the inventory development step we were talking about sins and the damage they do to our "basic social, security, and/or sexual instincts". When...
Decorated doors…..
Tonight I was preparing to teach a Sunday School lesson tomorrow. One resource I was reviewing had a series of Advent devotionals and one devotional opened with a reflection on doors, using as its imagery a picture montage of various doors from a city that was the author's home town. Several years ago I had purchased a picture of doors in Auburn, Alabama for Bill for a Christmas present, so I immediately related to the author's choice of image. This time of year is like standing before a door, with a sense of expectancy and anticipation. What will Christmas and the New Year bring? As the...
Lessons from pearls….
One of the issues we revisit regularly in Depression Impact Group is the matter of suffering- why it is present, how we face it, consecrating it to God for His redemptive work through it, etc. Recently, I was struck with the fact that, in the New Jerusalem, the Heavenly City, each of the 12 city gates is a pearl. As I reflected on the means by which a pearl is created it seemed to me appropriate that the gates should be pearls. The mollusks that produce pearls do so over a 3-6 year period of repeatedly coating an irritating foreign object so that it eventually becomes a beautiful,...
The war within…..
Tonight I'm watching an intriguing TV drama called "3 lbs", about a neurosurgeon and the neurology team at a hospital. They are removing the tumor-ridden connecting neurons between the two hemispheres of a woman's brain. In the story line, because she is pregnant, she is unable to undergo the chemotherapy or radiological options. After the surgery she is having to relearn coordinated movement and thinking, learning how to live with the right and left brain integrative function absent. It is an interesting solution to her dilemma, a sacrifice for the benefit of protecting her unborn child.I...
War….what is it good for?
Tonight I was reading a newsletter from an intercessory prayer ministry that I've been a part of for over a decade. The executive director was writing about working with members of Congress over the last 28 years. One Christian congressman that he worked for and traveled with had to wear a bullet proof vest under his suit because he was on Middle East terror hit lists. He said he and the congressman referred to their exploits on Capitol Hill and in foreign nations as "nuclear spiritual warfare".I have found myself or people I was praying for, from time to time, under particularly intense...
The reason for Thanksgiving
How Thanksgiving began as an official US holiday in 1863: (It's a shame we've lost so much of the reason behind so much of what we do!)Proclamation of President Abraham LincolnThe year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of...
It’s all over again…. until next time
The disappointing results of the congressional elections means that now there will likely be even more conflict, controversy, and partisanship in the house and senate. That actually suits me just fine. I recall hearing a wise person comment on the state legislature in Alabama one time that the more they kept themselves in an uproar, bickering with one another up on "Goat Hill", the less they could do to hurt the rest of us by passing unwanted or unneccessary legislation. It's a small comfort, but I'll take what I can get today.I'll pray that, in the absence of statemanship and the ability to...