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.
God’s Promises And Redemption
Humanity and its earthly habitat, which God called "very good" soon got off track in Eden due to men's and women's lack of experience with a crafty low-life character who had been exiled from holy Heaven to this new earthly realm....seemingly with a long enough leash to still do serious damage everywhere he goes.......enough to get the first couple exiled from their Paradise, too. But God knew satan had only so much leash and that God had the wisdom and power to anticipate satan's every move...... not needing to prevent satan's schemes, but having the sovereignty and goodness to redeem the...
Bathroom Humor
Someone posted a cartoon on Facebook about a man not remembering if he put the toilet seat down or not the night before. As he walked into the bathroom his wife is down IN the toilet. It made me laugh. In the 8 years we've lived in our little house at Deerpoint Lake, I have used the tiny little master bath and Bill has used the even tinier hall bath. Now that my parents are going to be visiting with us more, in preparation for the addition and move, I moved a little table out of my bath and made room for Bill to use the master bath, when needed. I noticed that he is using "my" bathroom more....
Favorite Rock
History on my favorite "rock"....Bill and I had come through a rough stretch in our marriage 16 years ago. We had worked through it and were studying Ray Vander Laan's "Faith Lessons from the Holy Land" video Bible study at Sunday School. Vander Laan taught about how ancient Hebrews placed rocks to mark key events in their lives where God was present. "Standing stones" or "ebenezers", are a symbol that remind people of God's miraculous work. We had the opportunity to get these rocks from the family farm and decided to place a "standing stone" in front of our house as an "ebenezer" for what...
Childhood Predation Lasting Pain
So many of the girls and boys affected by childhood sexual abuse will wind up further vicitimized by their inability to find freedom from the shame and hurt and will wind up living lives of addiction to substances or promiscuity or further abuse. Secrets and shame destroy lives. I had yet another reminder of these hard and evil realities this week as yet another mother heard a report from a child in a late night fit of drunken rage, DECADES later, how this now adult child was abused by someone in the past and the mother is hearing it now for the first time.... and has lived with the child's...
Bill’s Humor
3/24/16 My husband is so funny. Last night I got home and found his laundry on the laundry room floor by the washer. I thanked him for bringing it there for me and sorted it and started the first load. He said nothing. This morning we're getting up and he's headed to the shower. He says, "When I see Santa Claus at the bottom of the drawer, it's time to do some laundry." The LAST pair of underwear in the drawer are the Santa undies and that's what he's got to wear today! The load of undies is in the dryer now. The next day.....So....I went to the drawer to put all the freshly laundered undies...
Prayer Talk With Bill
Bill shared part of his morning study group's discussion on Judges: Principles of Victory: "The right prayer might not be, "Lord, take this away" but "Lord, use this as a way through the brokenness of my life right now, to shine Your light in this dark world in which I live. And let people see in me, not the reality of my own self-sufficiency, but the reality of the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we trust." My heart grieves for another family in the midst of an adult child's marriage difficulties. It's become a generational curse.....parents divorcing, children...
“Under The Earth”
"in heaven and on earth and under the earth"....that's an odd phrase, don't you think?. What does "under the earth" mean, especially in light of the other two phrases with which it appears (in context, so to speak.) Is this a reference to people who have died and are buried? Is it a metaphorical reference to those who are in hell? Or...could it be that those who are in Christ are either "in heaven" or "on the earth" (but not actually under the authority of those principalities of the earth...like a similar phrase "we are in the world but not of the world") Does "on the earth" mean something...
Who Are “Essential” Employees?
Two years ago, on 3/24/2020, as COVID was ramping up snd gallivanting across the globe, a FB friend posted this: "Who has what is deemed an “essential” job during these times? What do you do?" Me: "... I introduce people to Jesus.... " I continued: "People at the margins of society, some with whom I "work" will require a lot of hands-on, face to face contact.... Jesus-being is more "caught" than taught. Sort of like a …virus.... that has to get into your system! 🙂 There have been times when someone had a loved one in the hospital and, fearing that person may die, called me to come to...
Reality Check
Written 3/24/17 ....Speaking of "reality", I had one of those little metal signs in my laundry area that said, "Do not adjust your attitude. The problem is with reality." It made me laugh and yet, at the same time seemed to express the truth of the fact of the brokenness of the world and encouragement to hold onto my hope that it will be fixed someday. Apparently, it made someone else laugh, too, as it was stolen right off the wall sometime during the renovation of our home. I didn't miss it for a long time since it was part of a larger collage. Then one day as I was doing laundry I looked...
Old Women Reading
I have a limited edition print (75/500) called "The Old Woman" painted by Mary Shelton Burson in 1982. The date on the print is 11/20/1990. You can see she is sitting in a wheelbarrow reading something. I bought it, probably in 1990, from a friend who was a family member of the artist. As an avid reader, it spoke to my heart about a love that one never outgrows....reading! But today, as I thought about that picture, I got my magnifying glass and looked at the page of the book in her hand, what the old woman is reading....it is unevenly spaced and variable handwritten script, not typseset...