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.
Digital Scream
"The Scream" From post on 11/8/21....... Nothing has changed. "May I just say I abhor government websites that are necessary to do any transaction at every level- city, county, state, and federal. My chest tightens and I hyperventilate trying to negotiate their lengthy “secure” and tedious online systems. I’d rather spend money on postage for certified mail or drive 30 miles to an office to see a person. And government automated phone systems are equally a nuisance. Computerization was supposed to make life easier and simpler. For whom? Government? I do not find that it has done either one...
Yes, Sheep
When I see the degree of spiritual bondage some people are in as I talk to them and discover how spiritually immature and incapable of helping themselves they are, I realize why Jesus likened people to sheep. One can almost hear it in the voice of some who are desperately in need of a Shepherd: "Baaaa.....baaa". And it is true, the Enemy of one's soul prowls around stalking, tormenting, and waiting to pounce. Seeing how vulnerable some are and how the Enemy has left his marks makes me both angry and sad. Teaching, discipling and equipping such women to hear, know and follow the Good...
Taking A Risk
"How often is God’s heart broken by our insistence on “playing it safe”…. As if not getting hurt is the most important thing in the world.”. Taking a risk, stepping out on faith, being obedient and trusting God when something seems contrary to what the world expects of us or is out of one’s comfort zone can require courage, knowing God is good, and loving the Lord and His people more than one’s comfort, convenience, reputation, even life itself. There is a cost to discipleship. But one will never have given more than has been received.
You Know When It Is Time to Get Serious
I have lost 30 pounds in the last few months, but it has not been the agony that diets through the years have been. It has been about reorienting my thinking, not so much about the food itself, but about my relationship to food..... what longing I seek to satisfy with it, what hunger felt in my body is telling me....... It has been about slowing down, asking myself why I do the things I do and how I do them, especially around the issue of food choices and eating....... like where, how, when, what, why, and with whom I find myself eating. I have discovered some wrong thinking, some bad...
Heart Under Construction
"Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping. (Rule 2) There are a trillion things to pay attention to. Almost all of them are irrelevant. I would argue there's no better use of time than understanding your own personality and the personalities of those around you" (promo for Jordan B. Peterson's Discovering Personality course) The Lord has been working on me the last few weeks, in terms of showing me some things about me... Every once in a while He seems to shake things up and carry me through a time of introspection. Not morbidly so, or with regrets..... just calling me to...
Church Expectations
The problem with the church, any church, is not the church. It's the expectations that people bring to the church.... In other words , the ecclesiology of individuals, or what they believe about the church. I worked through my personal ecclesiology in the 90's as I experienced individuals' hypocrisy (including my own), a church's rejection of a pastor and his family, another church's process of self evaluation and change and the extraordinary blessings of God that resulted, and my own evolving expectations (or attempts at reducing them) of people and institutions directed by people. I have...
October Wildflowers: A Photo Video of a Weekend Retreat 2013
In October of 2013, three months after my Daddy's death, I took a weekend retreat at a campground in a National Forest in Alabama. It was a small guest house close to the campground director's home. I got there exhaursted, but with a big writing project to complete. When I arrived Friday, I unpacked, then slumped into a puddle of tears, wailing and lamenting over Daddy's death. I had been so busy after his death dealing with my mother, the continued construction on our house, and so much more, that I had not had time to grieve. So I cried most of that night and next morning. The...
At All Hallows Eve
Sometimes the simplest way to resolve a demonic presence is to simply listen to the person who is under its influence.... The Holy Spirit will reveal deceptions and give one the opportunity to combat the Enemy in ways that do not involve physical restraint, combativeness, or even disclosure of one's recognition of that demon's presence. When the individual under assault is gently and firmly guided into knowledge, understanding, and obedience to the Word of God, the demonic spirit will find itself attempting to abide in an environment that is no longer hospitable and will flee of its own...
“It’s The Little Things!”
I have often reminded discipleship students that, "It's the little things"..........They reveal where our heart and mind are focused. Sarah Westfall writes about this truth in her "Liturgy of Little Things" in her HUMAN TOGETHER blog, excerpted here: "Love often begins little. Instead of knocking down walls and breaking down doors, love works its way into the seemingly unseen, unnoticed corners of our lives, a kingdom of yeast and mustard seeds barely noticeable even when held in the human hand. Love comes gently, stepping into the brokenness not as a conquering king but as a fleshy baby....
“Be good!”
Have you observed situations in which "grace upon grace" preached and given led to indulgence and unrepentant excuse-making …..? Worth thinking about. “Grace doesn't free us to sin. Grace makes us despise our sin. Grace frees us to obey, and, when we sin, grace frees us to repent as we, by grace, rest in the perfect obedience of Christ.” This week I experienced a situation which, in my response to it I found myself despising my sin, felt the convicting work of the Holy Spirit, repented, and felt GOD's grace pull me back in close to Himself. I have teased some people who regularly tell me and...