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.
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...
Poetry: Journey
Journey I was on a journey, in a hurry, Not really sure of the destination, Knowing only that it was somewhere Other than where I’d been. I met and passed many along the way. Finally, one Traveler came alongside. He paced Himself to my stride. He engaged me in conversation. He told interesting stories. He asked challenging questions. Soon I realized that He was leading the way, And there was joy in that realization. It was no longer about where I was going Or even about where I had been. It was about the Person with whom I walked. It was He who blazed the trail. It was He who set me on the...
Laughable Politics
June 17,2018 "The media is all up in arms over Trump's off-the-cuff impromptu interview statement Friday morning about the way Kim's people sit up and pay attention when he speaks and Trump saying he wants "his people" to do the same....It amuses me. They still don't get that Trump is a corporate executive type personality.....Did they never watch The Apprentice? Have they never been in a corporate executive conference room? A CEO type expects "his people", his reports, to sit up and pay attention when he speaks. His corporate style doesn't translate well to political life. But some...
Trusting Ultimate Divine Agency
..."God's words to Moses are — ‘I will take pity on whom I take pity and be merciful to whom I am merciful." God does not owe me any explanations. His actions are based on His complete knowledge of individuals' hearts, experiences, reasoning, etc. I do not have the insight and discernment about people to judge God's disposition toward another. But I DO know God's goodness, mercy, lovingkindness, gentleness, and justice toward me and because of that, I do not question His choice to do as He wills in any individual's circumstance. I may not understand. In fact, I often won't. But I know He is...
Math Life
In high school I won an award one year for the highest grades in Algebra. Later some testing done while being considered for a promotion stated I had set a new record of achievement in the company's testing for abstract thinking and mathematics. All I can say is they couldn't have been reaching very high if I was able to set a new standard of achievement. I am a "tinkerpreneur" in the mold of my Daddy and as Thomas Edison is said to have quipped as he tested thousands of different metal filament mixes that each failure simply took him closer to the one that would work. My theory has...
Friends of God
The movement from servant to friend. John 15:15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends. Up to this point it strikes me Jesus did not look at or consider his disciples as friends. They were servants. He expected them to follow and obey him based on incomplete knowledge and understanding. They did not yet know their master’s business. The Greek word for disciple is mathetes and it means a learner. They had been learning along the way as Jesus’ apprentices from his teaching, modeling, demonstration and debriefing....
Discovering Family History
Family History: (CBB 6/12/2018) Bill and I attended a funeral in MOntgomery today. It was a first cousin of his, Marie Echols, who died last week at 94. Her children gave Bill this picture of his father, William Harry Byrd, who had been her uncle, on the left in his 20’s around early 1930’s. The bride,seated, was his first wife. We believe this was in Flint, Michigan. We believe her name was Marie. They had an infant that died and she got TB and died in a sanitarium. At 45 he married Marilyn, in her early 20’a and a nursing student at Wayne State. Bill was their firstborn. They had another...
“Becoming” Through Self Improvement
This is a “mindfulness” coach’s perspective on taking charge of your life and making a change for the better. The definition of “recovery” , in her case,from PTSD. At the heart of this is basic cognitive behavioral therapy. CBT. This embraces the culture’s view of “Becoming” through self-improvement. She was very briefly dismissive of those who have “even sought healing from PTSD through spiritual pursuits,” as if that were a non-starter. She says first step is : “Face your dark side to find the Light.” Take a stand against your dark side. Really? What is that dark side and where did it come...