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.
Warming the Oil
A friend with complications during a difficult trial asked a brother, “What is God doing in the midst of this?” His brother replied,”Warming the oil.” My friend soon recovered and found even greater joy and fulfillment in ministry, especially to others in suffering times. Mightn’t God be “warming the oil” for a great anointing so that his people will be even greater equipped for ministry in uncertain times?
My Grandmother’s Clock…
I grew up in a home in which an antique family mantel clock chimed the quarter hours and counted each hour for us day and night. My Daddy was the one who kept it wound each week. It was a steady and comforting sound for me growing up. Bill bought me a Westminster chime Hamilton “grandmother” clock for Mother’s Day, I believe it was, in 1977, or perhaps it was Christmas of 1976. I know we had moved into our first brand new home in 1976 on Hunting Creek Rd. and it was soon after that. It’s a smaller version of a grandfather clock and has followed us from home to home. In recent years it had...
Hearing God
I realize that not everyone "hears" the Lord's voice...feels the Spirit within their own spirit the way I do at times. One young lady with whom I am working is a very sensitive person and a new Christian. She is especially wanting the Lord to give her clear direction, to speak to her and let her feel his presence. If we do not seek God's will in his Word first, where it is clearly given, why would God give us other means of hearing him? Anything we hear or see we are to "test" against his written Word. If you don't know what God has said in the Word you can get quite deceived by the other...
Reckoned As Righteousness
A reference was made in his Seedbed Daily Text today by JD Walt to atonement through "the sprinkling of blood" My mind's eye saw the image of the ancient Hebrews' doors of their Egyptian "prison cells", with blood of a lamb sprinkled or brushed across the doorways' lintels as instructed by God through Moses to avoid impact of the flight of the Angel of Death across the land, killing the firstborn of every household. This is a foreshadowing of the ultimate sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ upon the wood of the cross, his own body there being the "Door" as Jesus spoke in John 10 of being...
A Failure of Parenting
A SILENT TRAGEDY There is a silent tragedy that is unfolding today in our homes, and concerns our most precious jewels: our children. Our children are in a devastating emotional state! In the last 15 years, researchers have given us increasingly alarming statistics on a sharp and steady increase in childhood mental illness that is now reaching epidemic proportions: Statistics do not lie: • 1 in 5 children have mental health problems • A 43% increase in ADHD has been noted • A 37% increase in adolescent depression has been noted • There has been a 200% increase in the suicide rate in children...
Putting Away Childish Things
“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” 1 Corinthians 13:11.. Jesus points to children as an example of the kind of faith, love, and trust for Father that he wants to see in his disciples. In this example, however, Paul is referring to the ways of childhood as an immaturity to be left behind. It is a way of only seeing and knowing in part, through eyes not yet able to see, ears not yet able to hear, a mind not yet able to understand…… We must leave those things behind so that we can...
Principle of Replacement
From July 14, 2021- Heard in a discussion: "We cannot just reject the things of the past...we have to run toward and embrace the future." This is a common theme in the life and addiction recovery philosophy of Titus 2 Partnership's ministry. This is the practical definition of "repentance".....it is what "redemption" looks like...a complete change, a transformation, a 180 degree redirection. This was made clear to me in studying Jesus' teaching in Matthew 12:43-45 and Luke 11:23-27: “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find...
Adverse Childhood Experiences
We are made in the image of God . You are a spirit, you have a soul (made up of mind will and emotions…, or in layman’s terms, your thinker, feeler and chooser) and as long as you are on this earth you live in a body…, Now I would venture to bet that 90%+ of the ladies that come through Titus 2, have a significant history of childhood trauma….. there’s a good inventory tool that gauges the amount and effects of “Adverse Childhood Events “ or ACES…. If you want to lead the ladies in meaningful change, you need to identify and address the effects of trauma in their lives!! There are numerous...
The Tool
Well over a year and a half ago, early one morning, the Lord awoke me with a single-frame "dream" image. It was a clipboard.....with rays of light glowing around it, like a picture one would see in a child's first reading readiness worksheets where they say what they see as a way of learning language in a picture story. I chuckled as I got out of bed and said, "Lord, I know what this is .....a tool....specifically a tool for organizing and communicating information, somewhat archaic and outdated by today's standards. We have iPads, iPhones, laptops, and software and so many more ways to...
Hazard Duty
I was sitting next to a friend at a luncheon and the subject of teachers with guns in schools came up. She, a former teacher, said, "They took the Bible out of the classroom. Then they took paddles away from the teachers. Now they want to give teachers guns." What's wrong with this picture? We can't train students in the knowledge of the Lord and we can't discipline them, but when failures in these two means of molding character have been withdrawn and we're suffering from the consequences, we can kill them in self defense. ( 3/21/18 )