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.
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...
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...