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.
Solitaire
Solitaire I attended the wedding of a friend .... retired and a few years younger than me. Our circumstances of singleness are different - divorced versus widowed. As I watched her excitement and joy, I thought to myself, "I can't even imagine life in another relationship." It's been two years since Bill's death and the reality of singleness is fully present to me. I'm as comfortable being "just me" among couple-friends as with single friends and I'm content in my home and with the activities of my life. I realized this week that the ever-present "our" reference in relation to grandchildren...
Sap Tested
I had written on 3/21/22 in this blog about a season in the spring of 2016 when God spoke to me about deadwood and "sap fire". specifically what happened as I sat waiting for the 2016 conference clergy conference to begin where the vote on my deacon provisional status would be decided, I was hearing the continuing message about "dead wood" and wondering if I was the dead wood being pruned. In that moment suddenly I felt the band of my sapphire ring break and I saw the word as " sap ph ire" written across the frontal lobe of my brain the way God has shown me words or single frame images...
Working With Church Benevolence Requests
A church's benevolence fund is not like a social service agency that receives grants like many non-profit community agencies. It is also not like your personal home budget and how you choose the way you dispense charitable gifts. Church members provide funds from their giving to the church for limited emergency assistance to local families, in addition to the tithes and offerings they give for support of the church's programs, operation, and for designated local, regional and international missions activities approved by a church's governance board. A certain amount is set aside for local...
Prayer Begins With Listening
If we can attune our ears and hearts to listen for God's Word continually, then that would be the essence of praying continually, right? Okay. I can listen continually.... I can't talk continually. And I certainy can't talk and listen at the same time. It's a knack.... attuning one's ears and heart and it has to do with knowing his written word, having and cooperating with his Spirit, and being among his people. The Voice is there. If we are listening, we will hear when his voice breaks through the "noise". Tune in to it. Jesus said his "sheep" know his voice. They are always...
Of The World Or Of The Kingdom
From 8/27/21. CBB From Revelation: Before the Day of the Lord, during tribulation, only those who receive the mark of the beast will have the “currency” to buy and sell in the earth. One has to understand the beast of the sea and the beast of the land to grasp what is the “mark” of the beast. And since it is a mark in the spirit primarily, and upon the soul and body to a lesser degree, only one with a spirit awakened with Christ, is able to discern through resurrection eyes and ears to see and know and avoid it. Also one has to understand God’s invitation to live in his eternal kingdom HERE...
Boats In A Storm
From 8/24/2022. CBB This picture depicts Jesus on the boat with the disciples after speaking to the storm, "Peace, be still ." I've had this picture since 1997, the year of a fierce spiritual figurative "storm" in my life. It had hung over our bed for a number of years at two prior homes where Bill and I lived, the last one being where we sat out the fierce winds of Hurricane Michael. Now it is over my bed at the townhome where I live. This morning when I got up I looked at it, as I often do, but instead of just the boat in the foreground where Jesus stands with outstretched arms, I saw two...
Self Respect and Boundaries
From 8/24/2014. CBB Saw this on a friend's facebook this morning......"Just because I cut someone out of my life does not mean I hate the person....it simply means I respect myself." In recovery ministry we often have to help our recovery students grapple with the reality that unhealthy, toxic, unsafe relationships may well need to be relegated to the corners of one's life, where contact can be defined by her own willingness or ability to engage safely, or may need to be eliminated altogether...not out of spite or punishment, but out of self-preservation. One Boundaries chapter talks...
Measuring Energy
8/24/2016. CBB I went for a massage today and was telling the massage therapist about my muscle aches and fever last week and that several folks had suggested fibromyalgia. One person on Facebook, however, had said, “Don’t receive that word.” Today the massage therapist said one of her clients told her about envisioning it like only having a limited amount of energy allotted for the day…she likened it to having a fixed number of spoons in her hand that she can dole out a spoonful of effort at the time. When the spoons are gone, she’s done for the day. As I thought about that I decided...
Values and Boundaries
Our willingness to set or embrace boundaries is a function of the values we hold. It's important to know what they are, which are non-negotiable and which are permeable and may be superceded by higher-ranking values. Titus 2 ladies today reviewed an assignment from last week on values...They took a value survey to identify the things that are important in their personal value system. Then we looked at how those values are being lived out in their lives now, how they came to recognize the values they hold, and how other values may rise to a higher level of importance as one is faced...
Paul’s Audiences With Christ
"Hungering in my spirit is a testimony to the reality of my faith, a witness to the fact that I belong to God. Spiritual hunger is the requirement for your growth It will spur you on to growth in discipleship. Jesus consciously sought to divide his crowd, to reduce the number to those who were "all in," testing the perseverance and commitment of his followers."- David Jeremiah Paul was among the most blessed of men; he had three audiences with Christ. First, when he was accosted on the road to Damascus by the burning bright light of the vision of Christ; second, in Acts 18, 9-11 "And the...