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.
If Life Is A Test….
Here's "ponderable" that arose from a conversation ...One person has stated that "life is a test" and she sees everything through the lens of being tested. I asked if she felt the tests were from the devil or from God. "God." If she views everything in life through the lens of a test, then at least she has given the best answer for where that test is coming from. Okay, then, if the test is coming from God, you may rest assured that God will not let you fail. if you "score" poorly, he'll give you another opportunity. God is a god of "do-overs." If you think he will punish you for giving your...
Redemptive Reversals
"The first Adam fell from his humanity from eating a proscribed meal he was forbidden to eat. The last Adam showed us how to rise to our humanity from eating a prescribed meal we are bidden to eat." Leonard Sweet There is such beauty in the many ways we see the NT in Jesus Christ and through his church redeem the acts of man that separated mankind from God in the OT. This vision of Holy Communion is perhaps one of the simplest and most beautiful I have seen expressed. Consider these: 3000 died, after worshipping a golden calf that arose from flames of desecrating fire; 3000 were born into...
Can We Love Enemies, Even Judas?
Someone posted a meme in social media about the mark of Christianity being the ability to love Judas as well as Jesus. I actually have considered that before. If satan had to ask to sift Peter, then he would have also had to ask permission of the sovereign God to sift Judas, as well, it seems. Peter endured the pain of his shame and lived to see himself restored when he encountered the Risen Christ and repented in godly sorrow. Peter, however, had been told in advance he would be sifted and WHEN he returned, he was to encourage others. Peter, however, also had something to go back to...
Bible Stories By The Wayside
This morning's Wayside topic: setting out on journeys.....from "Bible Notes by the Wayside" by Rev. Horatio Hackett, written in 1852 following several months of travel in the Holy Land. He writes about the story of Jesus' parents starting out on their journey home to Nazareth from Jerusalem and finding Jesus missing from the group, returning to find him teaching in the Temple. (Luke 2:41-49) He notes how strange this seems to us. But the way of caravan travel, which he documents from several sources, was that on the first "day's journey", the travel would start late in the day, about 3pm....
Emotions: Inside Out
Speaking of Pixar's new film "Inside Out", consulting psychologist Dacher Keltner answered this question: What did the film get right? "Well, I think that the film really got a couple of big ideas about emotions right. One, [emotions] are really critical to how we look at the world—our perception and our attention and our memories and our judgment. They guide us in our handling of really important life circumstances, like moves and developmental changes. The second thing is more subtle to perceive in the movie, and it's something that we've been arguing for in my lab: People in different...
God Uses Broken Things
Brokenness is a regular theme at Titus 2 Our women are always surprised to find that it is the starting point of the Kingdom of God, the first of the Beatitudes, the point of entry for the Kingdom of Heaven. Have you considered that the Gates of Heaven are made of Pearls? And what is it that is required to make pearls......pain, perseverance, and patience. Jesus' suffering made the way for us to overcome death and know the joy of resurrection to eternal life! Nothing is ever wasted by God, even pain, if we surrender it to him to be redeemed. I tell them, " Your brokenness is your human...
2020: Review
shared on FB 7/8/2020 Don’t know who wrote this but it’s a great laugh...and who doesn’t need a laugh right now? Long read but worth the laugh😉. #😷or⚰️ Dear Diary 2020 Edition, In ❄️ January, 🔥 Australia caught on fire. I don’t even know if that fire was put out, because we straight up almost went to war with Iran 🇮🇷 . We might actually still be almost at war with them 🤔. I don’t know, because 👩 Jen Aniston and 👨🏻 Brad Pitt spoke to one another at an awards 🏆 show and everyone flipped the crap out 😲, but then there was this thing happening in 🦇 🇨🇳 China, then 👑 Prince Harry and Megan...
Parables: Minds Upset
One of my very favorite devotional writers- Jill Carattini always challenges one to think! And one of my favorite topics....the revelation of God in Christ! Minds Upset Wherever one might be in declarations of belief, God is so often not the God these declarations expect, and often it is shocking to discover it. God comes near and offends our sense of understanding; God affronts our categories and overturns our sense of familiarity. Jesus of Nazareth does the same; quite particularly so in the language of the parables. With his stories, he offends the believing and unbelieving, disciples,...
Death: poem By William Cullen Bryant
So live, that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan which moves To that mysterious realm, where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. William Cullen Bryant.
Parenting Wisdom from Gov. Mike Huckabee
A Blank Book of Pages The first school in which we enroll, and the most important in shaping our future, is our home. A casual view of modern TV shows might lead us to believe that parents don’t matter. I contend that nothing matters more. When Benjamin West was a boy, his mother left him in charge of his younger sister, Sally. Benjamin found bottles of colored ink and painted Sally’s portrait. When his mother arrived home, she discovered spilled ink and ruined paper. But before she had the chance to scold Benjamin, she saw the picture. Then she planted an encouraging kiss on his cheek. He...