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.
Huckleberries
My reflection 11/3/25: “When the Lord puts something on your heart to do, you do it. It may not make sense to others. It may not even make sense to you at the moment. But the logic of the world has no bearing on what God has said to you. Others will not be accountable for your lack of obedience. You will. You can pause and ask if you heard or understood the Lord correctly. God will make it clear. If it is within what you understand of the character of God, the Word of God, the example of Christ and it is within your ability, don’t delay. At that point, you need to get on about His business....
Be Sanctified Spirit, Soul, and BODY
Be ye sanctified wholly…spirit, soul, AND BODY!!! 1 Thessalonians 5:23 I teach that people grow in six ways…the same ways Luke 2:52 tells us that Jesus, in the fullness of His humanity, grew perfectly….The ways God created us all to reach full maturity.In wisdom (intellectually and emotionally) In stature (physically and morally) In favor with God (spiritually) and In favor with people (socially)! Physically means not just achieving full height and size, but also having knowledge about self-care and healthful living! God created us as tri-part beings, but many of us neglected the”body”...
A Life Defined By A Passion
Determination and perseverance defined by a life….. “She watched 146 women burn to death because factory owners locked the exits.Twelve years later, she became the most powerful woman in America.As a girl, Frances Perkins couldn't understand why good people lived in poverty.Her father said the poor were lazy or weak.Frances, even then, knew that couldn't be true.At Mount Holyoke College, she studied physics—safe, respectable, appropriate for a young woman. Then came a class trip that changed everything. Her professor took students to tour factories along the Connecticut River.Frances saw...
Losing One’s Mind For the Cause of Christ
I’ve been mulling over JD’ Walt’s comments in the seedbed Wake Up Call on YouTube 10/27/25 that if we feel burdened and joyless in Christian life, we aren’t doing it right. Even more-so, I think that applies to those in vocational ministry. In 2002, the year I started working in Christian education at my church, two friends and I started a comedy music trio to entertain at Emmaus Walks in our conference (“altar”egos seen tuning up in photo below, L to R: Cricket-tenor, Eula Lee-soprano and Maybelline-alto.) We worked walks at least 3-6 times a year from 2002-2016 or so, then we turned our...
“So That You Won’t Fall Away”
“If you are in a “full of sorrow, kind of moment right now,”know that sorrow is not the end of your story. John 16:20 is a reminder to stay faithful. God will turn your tears of sadness into tears of joy. A lasting and permanent kind of joy, a joy that the world cannot take away. God knows that you are tired. He knows you are doing your best. He sees you and He sees that you are not giving up. Remember, when life feels overwhelming, God’s peace is greater than your struggles. His love will carry you through every storm.” (Dottie Wilson’s text devo is the starto gnpl e for my reflection this...
Assurance of Salvation
Assurance…. A hallmark doctrine of Methodism….. yet do we really “get it?” Assurance is not “all about the heart”….. it’s only about the heart after one’s heart has been circumcised and healed by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit operating by invitation to Jesus to take control of one’s life…… Hebrews 6:19 (AMP) “This hope [this confident assurance] we have as an anchor of the soul [it cannot slip and it cannot break down under whatever pressure bears upon it]—a safe and steadfast hope that enters within the veil [of the heavenly temple, that most Holy Place in which the very presence...
Doing Good Feels Good
I’ve been pondering “goodness” recently as part of exploring the topic in the Fruit of the Spirit. This article from October 14,2023, discusses hedonism vs. eudaemonism. Excerpted from an article by Matthew Little, "Hedonism Vs. True Happiness" in Epoch Times "There are two key kinds of happiness, and while our society is gorging on one, it is starving for the other. "Hedonic happiness (derived from the Greek word ‘hedone,’ meaning ‘pleasure’) refers to the feelings we get from creature comforts. It’s the thrill that comes with buying new shoes or eating a decadent dessert. Hedonic is...
God Can Have Regrets?
I love it when women I’ve mentored in the past are thinking deeply and engaging with God’s Word. One texted to ask,“I’m reading a book on obedience , it references, Genesis Six . How can the Lord have regret?” My reply:“God is a person, with emotions…. Our capacity for emotional responses is part of His image in us. God can know that something is going to happen and yet, even when it actually plays out in a worst case scenario of yielding to evil and painful consequences result to many people, God knows that He has to impose discipline or set boundaries against people He loves but with whom...
Hidden Health Risks Revealed
Wow! Just WOW! I happened up on an article about a man who suffered “erethism”, from effects of mercury poisoning, from removal of mercury amalgam dental fillings. Mercury is a heavy metal that’s found in the earth’s crust. It’s toxic to people, so even low levels of exposure can cause health problems. Prolonged exposure can lead to chronic mercury poisoning. This may be called mad hatter disease or mad hatter syndrome. This led me on a deeper dive about the subject based on my own experience, too! “Mad hatter disease causes severe neurological effects known as erethism. It can lead to...
Screen Fasting
David Foster Wallace: “In his 1992 essay “E Unibus Pluram,” he calls this a “new vision of the USA as an atomized mass of self-conscious watchers and appearers.” Our Shared Reality Is About to Self-Destruct Instead of participating in a “community of relationships,” he said, we become locked into “networks of strangers connected by self-interest and contest and image.” He believed this loneliness led to widespread depression—a condition with which he suffered intensely.Wallace also understood how, though screen entertainments helped him escape from depression, they simultaneously led to even...