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.
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 )
Hard Sundays In Widowhood
Sunday’s are always the hardest days for me without Bill. I go to church. I plan things. I try new recipes. I work in flower pots. This is the day the devil works hardest to hit me with grief and sadness. Today he attacked me at a point where I am most vulnerable- threatening the very existence of Titus 2 ministry with technical business operations failings in which I have both no experience and skill and in which Bill’s absence is not only acutely felt by me but which can undo years of labor by both of us and many others on behalf of women who have few options without the stabilizing help...
5 Ways God Uses Problems
5 Ways God Uses Problems The problems you face will either defeat you or develop you - depending on how you respond to them. Unfortunately, most people fail to see how God wants to use problems for good in their lives. They react foolishly and resent their problems rather than pausing to consider what benefit they might bring. Here are five ways God wants to use the problems in your life: God uses problems to DIRECT you. Sometimes God must light a fire under you to get you moving. Problems often point us in a new direction and motivate us to change. Is God trying to get your...
Philosophy and Laughter
At Saturday's Women's Grief Gathering on February 19,2022, we talked about the therapeutic value of laughter during our discussion time. This article by Jonah Goldberg, who is quite funny himself, points out some interesting historical perspective on humor and gives some nice links to other writer's tributes to O'Rourke. I enjoyed O'Rourke's work. Humor is a daily requirement for my soul. Excerpt here: "Kierkegaard and Kant had more nuanced views of humor, seeing it as an effort to illuminate the incongruities and inconsistencies—even the absurdities—of existence. (This shouldn’t be...
No Dead Ends
Some things can only be said from outside the system. Several trusted advisors (some of them pastors) have offered me comfort and encouragement for having been discontinued from provisional deacon status by The AWFUMC by observing that I am too....."whatever"........(one thing or another- honest, outspoken, non-conformist, Christian, etc.) to associate with the self-righteous who make such judgments to protect what they perceive to be the reputation and unity of the club of the ordained. Understand making these judgements about who is worthy lies entirely in the hands of a dozen or so...
Stumps
Isaiah 6:8-13- Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, “Here am I.(Send me!” 9 He said, “Go and tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ 10 Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” 11 Then I said, “For how long, Lord?” And he answered: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left...
Not Without Voice
3/16/17- Once again, I can only marvel at what a sense of humor and irony God has! Last year at the same time that the Alabama West Florida Conference Board of Ministry notified me that I was discontinued from provisional status as a deacon, the UMC Communications' magazine, The Interpreter, featured an article in which Titus 2 was mentioned for the Deacon Emerging Ministry Grant that had been awarded in the summer of 2015. I appealed the decision last year to the Annual Conference Clergy Session in June and was allowed to continue over the objection of the Board of Ministry. This year, on...
On God’s Time
Whatever appointments I set for my schedule today, God has appointments that will either converge with or preempt my own. I pray that I will be aware of God's presence in each of those and what God is doing in each situation, whether it is expressing himself through me to others or through others to me. God is always at work in the places, people, and circumstances of the present moment.