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.
Scandalous
Scandalous...... Pastors seem to be only somewhat less likely to be involved in scandals these days than anyone else.......as attested to by some statistics in a recent sexual ethics workshop for clergy. People are still people, subject to the same brokenness of temptation and sin even after the laying on of hands, it appears. I overheard a member of the UMC Board of Ministry about a month ago telling someone in a dining room serving line behind me that the Board was looking for clergy candidates who were "self-aware, scholarly, and serious." That was another of those moments when I knew...
God Only Knows
3/18/2020....... Reflections I have had several women come into Titus 2 who have told me that the reason they got sober was because God told them, in no uncertain terms, at a critical point in their addiction that, if they continued, they would die. While it is not unreasonable to expect that some of them would likely die if they had continued in their addiction, I believe their testimonies of hearing the voice of God warn them.. No one makes up a story about God telling them they are going to die....I'm curious if there are any people hearing God's voice of warning in the midst of this...
Authority and Splendor
From Luke 4:5-7......the satan's second temptation of Jesus: 5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.” The authority and splendor of the satan is nothing more than the common carnival-ware things of life that shine temporarily in the world of the flesh. The enemy may have the power to offer the world's best but, even at that, at its best, lofty...
“What’s The Key?”
An individual asked: What do you feel are the experiences, new learning and resources that Titus 2 provides that result in an environment in which women overcome their addiction and take advantage of your assistance to greater self sufficiency? Are there key characteristics to your recovery and restoration process? Our response: It’s not quick or easy, but it is pretty straight forward when the goal is firmly in mind and the means are in keeping with biblical principles and can be explained in terms the individual can understand. Our Titus team brings a unique and broadly holistic view of...
High Places: Fearfully and Wonderfully
It seems that this is the second time in this Lent series that Dan Wilt, author of Jesus in the Wild, has referenced a personal experience of being on a high place, a tempting prominence where the view is breathtaking, and the heady (and frightening) feeling it can invoke. As I think of those two emotions co-existing side-by- side in such a place I am reminded of Psalm 139:14 NIV - "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." I have meditate on Psalm 139;14 before and not seen the connection and purpose before. "Fearfully...
Remembered
So blessed to receive this photo from our youngest granddaughter who spotted this beautiful male cardinal outside the library window at her university today. Said it made her think of me....❤️ what a sweet way to be remembered.... from 3/12/22
Death and Taxes
From 3/12/22.... Getting a letter from this source is always a bit angst-provoking. To receive two in the same day is doubly angst- provoking. In 2019 , with all the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, we simply weren't able to get things together by April 15th, 2020.... so our CPA requested an extension in April of 2020 until November 2020....and we all know what happened in March 2020- every "non-essential" function everywhere shut down.... The request for the extension on the 2019 tax return had not appeared in the system of IRS by June 2021. We had already filed 2019 return in...
Doing Discipleship, Fostering Agency
I am discipling a middle-age woman with no childhood experience of religious practice but a growing realization that the only way she is going to gain power over her addiction of 25+ years is through Christ. (She has been in 7 recovery programs and multiple detoxes in that time.)She has had one relative model Christian faith in her life and she has read a good bit of the Bible but she's just not "got it". She says she has burned all her bridges. She was one class short of completing a masters that hasn't been finished because of a DUI a few years ago that ended her driving privilege. I have...
Be Prepared When You Say, “Use Me, Lord.”
Discerning the enemy's ways and rejecting them can take a long time and hard experience. Dan Wilt's lingering reflections on the opening verses of Luke 4 in the Wake Up Call at seedbed.com have given me time to reflect on some of those experiences in my life. And, as we will see later in Luke's gospel, the satan does not give up even when he strikes out in an inning. He simply waits for an "opportune time," wearing us down, and shifting his strategy. God may allow the satan's testing of us, but God knows what His redemptive will is in the long run and He encourages us to hold fast to the...
Neutralizing Evil or Good?
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. Luke 4:1–2 (NIV) Dan Wilt writes in today's Wake Up Call devotional (at seedbed.com), " There is a spiritual power of evil that both exists and has a purpose—to get you to either forfeit or extinguish the precious gift of life your Creator has given you." This spiritual evil, the satan, knows what we know... that our bodies are merely temporary. He will destroy them if he...