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.
Secrets
On Secrets: "Some revelations stop relationships in their tracks. But others reveal the true person in our midst, the imperfect, limping, and often loving soul we cared about so much. And so we continue to care, and together we rebuild, this time slowly, on a foundation of truth. We can build a house together, or a home, or a beautiful garden that is nourished by acceptance." Jane Isay, author of "Secrets and Lies" Amen.
Bold Defiance….Humble Dependence
In a recent devotional reflecting on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego a writer pointed to the attitude of their hearts, submitted to the will of the King, even to death, in order to remain true to God. She quoted another writer on the difference between bold defiance and true honest humble dependence on God. These three men seemed deeply secure in God’s vast love for them. This level of security enables true humility. Who can drink the cup of Christ? The writer said that she did not believe it is done with “Bold Defiance”. People do not listen to bold defiance. In the end King Nebuchadnezzar...
Conscience As Guide
The old adage, "Let your conscience be your guide" is as good as worthless unless one's spirit and soul are operating under the authority of the Holy Spirit. I think of the conscience, a part of the soul, as a neutral tool that is programmed by the input we feed it. If fed or sown to from the world, it gives the majority weight of its "algorithm" for decision-making influence to the things of the flesh, residing firmly at the margin between body and soul. If it is fed or sown to from the spirit, it migrates toward and firmly attaches itself at the margin between spirt and soul, taking its...
Bathsheba’s ( And Eve’s) Actions in Perspective
1 Peter 2:13-21 and 3:1-7, among other scriptures, has been used by some to keep women in abusive relationships - as if that is where Jesus is calling them to suffer for Him.Jesus is not calling women to passively enable an abuser to remain unchallenged and unaccountable for sin, facing none of the consequences of abusive behavior. "13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.15 For it is God’s will(AH) that by doing...
Grandchildren Memories: Catie
3/10/2017 Bill and I had a conversation over lunch with our eldest granddaughter, age "almost 20" about the movie "Silence" and about theological implications of persevering in the faith, apostasy, being used by God in the most difficult of circumstances, depravity of humanity, imago dei, freewill, hearing and being obedient to the voice of God, and other exciting topics! She started out as a cradle Methodist, but due to the increasingly liberal teaching of her family's UM church in Charlotte, NC, her parents moved them to non-denominational churches through several geographical relocations,...
Grandchildren Memories: Haley
3/10/2013 Middle grand girl, Haley has a volleyball tournament at Bay High today. With her parents out of town, I took her down at 7:00 a.m. We turned into the parking lot and I hear, "Uh oh. I forgot my shoes..." Me: "Shall we go back and get them?" H: "I'll be late and the coach will be angry with me." Me: "Tell me where to find them and I'll go get them for you." H: "Lying on the floor of my room." Me: Driving back to Tropical Dr., then back to the gym. H: "I love you, Gigi". (with hug, in the middle of Bay High School gym.) Such small things. Such big rewards! I remember as a parent I...
Emotional Emergency To Spiritual Emergence
Train, Discipline in Love or Dismiss? by Cathy Byrd Hebrews 12:11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Recovery work with broken people is hard some days. There are occasionally rules violations of such egregious nature that our guidelines allow (though do not mandate) immediate dismissal. Such was the case yesterday with a very young, very immature, but very capable and bright young lady. It was a second violation in the same general set of rules....
Sin Hidden, Pain Multiplied
3/10/2017 A young man with whom Bill and I had some personal experience in our work with the Rescue Mission 4-5 years ago and who later continued his efforts in substance abuse recovery through another men's program was sentenced to 30 years in prison yesterday for the suffocation death of his girlfriend's baby 10 years ago....9 years after the fact of the baby's death, his conscience was apparently softened and his guilt no longer bearable and he confessed. In most cases substance abuse is not the issue.....trying to avoid the pain....either inflicted on us by others or that which we have...
Tree Grief
3/10/2019 In addition to a huge pine tree ( to which I say good riddance!), the numerous oaks and the palm tree we lost in Hurricane Michael, I lost a nice sized English dogwood, 2 cedars, several sago palms and azaleas, a crepe myrtle, several bridal wreath shrubs, a Japanese maple, and a flowering plum. Then numerous other potted plants and landscape items- pacific juniper, dwarf yews, confederate jasmine, and more. ***sigh****. We’ll be 4-5 years getting the yard back in shape. 3/10/2022: As God would have it, Bill went home to the Lord the next summer, August 6,2020. I moved away from...
Harbinger of Spring
Three years ago, March 10, 2019, I noted these first blooms on the flowering almond shrub at Deerpoint Lake. Last year on the same date I stopped by the our then vacant house to check on this shrub and enjoy the signs of spring........ An old fashioned shrub that made it through the storm! Flowering almond. Tiny pink flowers are an early harbinger of spring. Happy happy! This week I will return there and ask for a small cutting from it. It was transplanted from my grandparents' home in Clayton, Alabama.