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.
Good Example or Horrible Warning
4/16/16 God makes use of everything....everything that happens to us can become a springboard that God will use. As I have shared with students and others through the years, however, sometimes God uses it as a good example...Other times he uses it as a horrible warning. Which one will our life's witness be for others? I was told recently by someone that the Lord had made it clear that what she'd been through would be used to help others. Yet as I asked her about her life, it is a wreck. In addition to a string of disasters- relationally, legally, financially, emotionally and more, she knows...
Communion Prayers
Prayer during Communion......another tradition. For a number of years now, since some Holy Communion services at Blue Lake Campground, it has been my practice to pray as I sit during the communion service after taking communion and as others go forward to receive the elements and the blessing in the sacrament. Today at the Sunrise Service, I did the same. My prayer was for this service to touch deeply the hearts of the young women I brought with me, for each person coming to "see and believe", as Pastor Terry preached today from John 20, for our church and all churches in our community to...
Easter in The Past
From 4/16/2017: I had phoned in my message title and scripture for today's sermon to the voicemail of the worship leader. He called me back the next day to verify what he'd taken off the voicemail. He sounded confused by my choice! Luke 1:1-3....After the sermon today he came over and said, "That was the PERFECT scripture for that message." He wasn't sure where I was going, but it seems I brought it all together. And his choice of hymns was perfect! My sweet husband, Bill, attended worship there with me at Trinity UMC. Great to be together for worship on Easter Sunday! I asked Bill to take a...
Light Out Of Brokenness
Heard ...."The more broken the vessel, the more the light shines forth!" That is certainly true of some of the people I have known........lives shattered, and then restored by God, with the capacity to show forth the light that lives within! For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ, but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. (2 Corinthians 4:6-7)
Zaccheus Option
From the Zaccheaus Option by Scott Jones: "I feel that my chief purpose is to be an understanding neighbor for those who find it impossible to join the exultant crowds beneath the unfurled flags of whatever color, for those who keep their distance…I like Zacchaeuses. I think I have been given the gift of understanding them. People often construe the distance that Zacchaeuses maintain as an expression of their “superiority,” but I don’t think they are right — things aren’t that simple. In my experience, it is more the result of shyness. In some cases, the reason for their aversion to crowds,...
Remembering Here and Now
Today we had our monthly Women's Grief Group at Lynn Haven Methodist Church. We welcomed a couple of new guests who have experienced more recent losses..... It was a poignant reminder for others of us, taking us right back to those early months of fresh grief and reminding us how far we've come in moving out of the "beginning of the end of life as it was" and through the numbness and motions of transitioning toward the "end of the beginning of life as it will be." One day I realized I had moved from season to season, doing what needed to be done... from questioning to decided, from there...
The Witness of Scars
Seedbed's JD Walt had posted a photo of a journal page entitled "If Scars Could Speak" on April 3,2023. It resonated with me because I'd had a "scar" surprise the night before. I went to see His Only Son on Sunday, April 2. I realized I needed to go see it again to clarify something script author and producer David Welling put into the movie. At one point as Abraham knelt in humility and heartbreak before the Angel of the Lord, the theophany of God, the Lord's hand reached out to him in what appeared to be a gesture of empathic understanding and, honestly, I believe the hand of God...
Equally Yoked
"Equally yoked?" (Sermons on relationships by a popular Atlanta area pastor, Andy Stanley resulted in reflection on this idea on 2017.) One way to think about it is to be about becoming the kind of person that the person one is looking for is looking for....With that in mind, one needs to be careful that (s)he is true to "self" and stands firmly in the values and virtues one has embraced and by which one is committed to live. Is it only in regard to one's profession of faith in Christ? I don't think so as it is clear to me that profession of faith alone doesn't really tell one what kind of...
Crisis Counseling
Read 2 months into COVID-19 pandemic..... From Columbia University Psychiatry by way of Medscape: What is crisis counseling? A person's usual adaptive, problem-solving capabilities are often compromised after a disaster, but they are there, and if accessed, they can help those afflicted with mental symptoms following a crisis to mentally endure. Ensuring safety and promoting return to functioning, as well as being informed about immediately available resources, are the central objectives of crisis counseling, thereby making it a different approach from traditional psychotherapy. The five key...
Seas To Highways…..
Are you ever listening to music on the radio and suddenly a word or phrase jumps out at you that leads you to something you hadn’t seen , heard, or considered before? This morning as I listened to a Christian station, a song “Graves Into Gardens” came on and I heard something that piqued my interest..... seas to highways. “You turn mourning to dancing You give beauty for ashes You turn shame into glory You're the only one who can (Come on) You turn mourning to dancing You give beauty for ashes You turn shame into glory (Tell 'em now) You're the only one who can (Let's turn the graves) You...