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.
October Flowers…
http://youtu.be/onN60HC-HBs CAUTION! Open this link only if you are ready to take a few minutes and think about the way you wish to live today.......Breathe. Listen. Watch.
Like A Child…
Genesis 8:21 ……..every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. Ouch! At Christmas time we long to be like children again......and, too often we are exactly that.....selfish, bratty, demanding, not realizing the many blessings we have already received, wanting more, attentive for barely moments to whatever has caught our attention, then moving on and looking for something else to entertain us...... Then again, children can be sweet and innocent, appealing to the protective and loving part of our nature. The human condition is one of being capable of "double mindedness"....we...
Power of Testimony
From my journal 12/2/2018.... "With each opportunity to tell others about the wonders of Christ’s love as he has worked in our lives comes a greater degree of confidence that God has been bringing one through experiences which, when consecrated to Him and understood in the context of Scripture, He can use to touch others. Each follower of Christ has a story to tell. If we are obedient to God and consecrate our lives to Him, those stories become, in part, the means by which He touches other lives. I am grateful for the opportunity to tell the story, Christ’s story, and the small part that He...
Thoughts on Healing Ministry: Spiritual Therapeusis
"The Christian world view is revelational, Trinitarian and redemptive. It is within this world view and theology of faith, hope and love that Christian priests and lay people minister." "From the Church’s perspective, the crisis, the prompt and the point of contact with the Church, are often the individual’s suffering and dis-ease, with self, with God and with others. This personal inner dissonance is rooted in the unavoidable knowledge that all is not well, all is not reconciled and peaceful, that none of us is entirely healthy, physically, mentally nor spiritually, and none of us is an...
How Full?
Some, looking at their circumstances with natural eyes, see the glass half empty. They hoard and negatively grumble about how little they have. Others see the glass half full and are grateful for what they have, measuring it out and striving to be good stewards of what they have for their own use, carefully hoping for it to last as long as possible. But those with spiritual eyes care not whether the glass is half empty or half full. They know the Source of the water in the glass, drink it down with gratitude and delight and share it with others knowing that it will be refilled endlessly....
Rhythm and Rest
A wonderful thought for today...…. "After every heartbeat comes a moment of rest. In that split second, the heart is silent. In our heart's rhythm of beating and rest is a lesson; there is a time to be active and a time to rest. "There is the lonely place to which Jesus invited his disciples when he said, “Come away to a deserted place . . . and rest a while.” With this invitation he was calling them out of their busyness to a place of rest beyond the demands of their life in ministry." - Fr. Ron Rolheiser What do you do with rest? Does it make you anxious? Do you go into "Martha Mode" and...
To Test Your Heart and Mind
Pondering today….. Deuteronomy 8:2 "Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands." Psalm 26:2 Examine me, O Lord, and try me; Test my mind and my heart. Psalm 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; Jeremiah 17:10 “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds. 1 Chronicles 29:17 Since I know, O my God, that You try...
Thanksgiving:2009
Enjoyed an early Thanksgiving meal with parents and daughter's family. Today we have just chilled and eaten leftovers.Grandkids, ages almost 7 and 5, made Rice Kispie treat "houses", decorated with candies, like gingerbread houses. The 7 year old and I have been reading a 1898 vintage reader about English tea traditions...how china, tea, coffee, sugar, honey, currants, and salt are made. Sweet little stories. We had a cup of ginger peach tea after our reading session, with a slice of Italian Pannetone. Yumm!
Nuns and Sisters
Nov 36,2014..., "In the category "I Never Knew That": Bill was watching a TV interview with a Catholic sister the other morning. (order and location unknown). I wasn't paying attention to the TV at the time. Afterward he asked if I knew the difference between a nun and a sister. I did not. He said that she explained it this way: A nun is cloistered. Her life is about devotion to God, personal piety, and ministry within the church. A sister is one who serves in the world. She is more involved with missions and connecting the world to Christ. I never knew that." My comment at the time...
Thanksgiving Memory: 2014
"Divine inspiration? So....I went to Winn Dixie looking for canned sweet potato to use in a casserole. (I know, lazy.) Could only find the yams in syrup. Frowning to myself, I headed to the produce section to buy fresh sweet potatoes, dreading having to peel and boil them to prep for the casserole. I dragged my feet last night and finally went on to bed with the task undone. This morning I'm looking at the bag of sweet potatoes and saying to myself, "I'll just take them with me and do them tonight at Charlotte Ann's." So we get here (finally.....see previous post) and have supper and sit and...