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.
Faith By Way of Disillusionment
I had heard someone say that the hardest people to evangelize and disciple are those who attend church..... they operate under an illusion of self-satisfied goodness. I did for many years, not fully surrendering all of my life, but merely pieces and parts. I did the right things in the right places, as far as it went.... but beyond that my knowledge of God and my own vulnerability to satan's deception was woefully untrained. God getting my attention and setting me free to discover more about both Him and me and the human condition eventually led to the same kind of dis-illusionment that is...
Know Peace And Victory
Virtually all of the women who come to us profess faith in Christ. Some have been baptized multiple times. They generally hope ( and some have assurance) that their profession of faith frees them from the penalty of eternity in hell. But somehow the victorious life of freedom from the power of temptation and sin in the here and now has eluded them. Our task is to help them come to know freedom from the power of temptation and sin by coming to know themselves better and to know Christ more intimately and personally through study of and obedience to the principles, proclamations, prohibitions,...
Avoid Such People
2 Timothy 3:2-5 "For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people." Choose wisely those with whom you choose to fellowship and be in community. The ones to avoid are fairly easy to spot......
What Problem?
Keep on telling yourself addiction is a medical problem, not a moral or spiritual problem. We will have a lot more casualties in the war. We are in a war that is not against flesh and blood but against the powers and principalities of this world. This is just the enemy’s most deadly physical assault at the moment, which finally attracted enough attention to now rally everyone’s attention. But medical, mental health, law enforcement, educational, or financial solutions alone are not going to win the war. We have a cultural soul sickness and spiritual blindness that is killing our youth. A...
On Babies In Church
On babies in church...... July 5, 2014 Today I was cleaning out some old files in my garage. Several notebooks needed to be gone through before being thrown out. One was a Children's Ministry notebook. In 2008, I was completing a series of certification classes for Christian Education. One assignment in a Children’s Ministry semester was answering the question “When have you been distracted by a child’s presence in worship? What might you say to the other worshipers or parents about the child’s contributions to the worshipping community? ...My response: The following is about a time I was...
Overcoming Trauma’s Chains
When one can’t tolerate uncomfortable emotions, it can effectively put the person in a cage. The more she tries to avoid thoughts, people, and experiences that stir up uncomfortable emotions, the smaller and more isolated her life becomes...... even sometimes becoming anxious, paranoid, and experiencing altered reality. One can learn to confront trauma's emotional bondage, build distress tolerance, and open the door to life-changing freedom from trauma's grip.
Persevering In Tribulation
Tribulation brings perseverance (the ability to remain faithful under pressure). Perseverance leads to character. Character produces hope. The hope is that we will know the glory of God. " This is child's play down here, " David Jeremiah once said in a sermon. Really? It doesn't feel like play. It’s pretty brutal. I will learn everything God wants me to learn so I can do all he has planned for me to do. I may be still woefully inadequate in showing grace to others, but I know without a doubt I have God's grace to sustain me. Jeremiah reminds us that there are some of us whom only God's Holy...
Rat Park Lessons
Titus 2 students and Cathy Byrd had a lengthy discussion about depression, addiction, self care skills, and an oarticle about the "Rat Park" experiments that demonstrated that addiction recovery is more a matter of social support and attachment than anything else. At Titus 2 our staff has understood this for quite a while. Those who embrace building community, emotional intelligence training, accountability with a small supportive group, and conflict resolution skills do much better in long term outcomes. Today I received a message from a former student who was celebrating 4 years of being...
Disappointment
Occasional disappointment in other people is a given. Even disappointment in oneself for having let others down is common. Then there is disappointment in oneself for expecting too much of others that one has to contend with, too. It simply sends one closer and closer to the side of Christ where there is no disappointment and where one's expectations can never be too lofty. Perhaps in doing so one can avoid pulling away from others and be better prepared for the disappointments when they come. It is a given in life that ANY individual has the capacity to disappoint another person at...
Love God FIRST
Luke 2:52 b observes that among other things, like wisdom (intellectual and emotional growth) and stature (physical and moral growth), Jesus also grew......" in favor with God and in favor with man," ( that is, spiritually and THEN, lastly, socially in relationship to others.) Our parents are our first models of goodness, provision, safety, and security. Done well, parenting helps a child transfer his trust to God and learn healthy limits to trusting and engaging with other people. When Jesus articulated the most important commandment in response to the Scribes and Pharisees in (Matthew...