When life throws her curve balls, freshman Miriam Ritchey picks up her Bible. 

After facing the loss of a friend due to cancer, Ritchey sought Scripture for support. 

“I legitimately just googled for lament psalms and I found a short one, Psalm three, and I put it to music,” Ritchey said.

Ritchey started memorizing Psalms during her freshman year of high school as part of her New Year’s resolution. So far, Ritchey has memorized 41 Psalms, 30 of which she shared in a public recitation on March 22. 

At first, Ritchey said she was overcome with the emotions seeping through the Psalms. The evocative imagery and words frustrated her.

“It hit me out of the blue. I do think it was God urging me to some extent just because I hadn’t heard of anybody memorizing the book of Psalms. I had no context for it,” Ritchey said.

Ritchey also said she wanted to study scripture further for mission work she plans to do in the future. She recalled a story of a missionary who, despite being trapped in a box, kept reciting the Scripture he had memorized. 

“I want to have enough of the Bible memorized that it won’t ever be taken from me,” Ritchey said.

For Ritchey, memorizing Scripture has been very personal, but she also acknowledged the public aspect of sharing God’s Word .Ritchey recited the first 30 Psalms in the formal lounge last week. 

“I want memorization to be more public in the sense that I want people to share it more,” Ritchey said.

Her roommate, freshman Phaedra Kelly, was there to show her support. Kelly said she benefited from the recitation, especially since it took place the week after spring break.

“It’s always difficult to really get back into it all, and so I thought the recitation was a good reset,” Kelley said. “It was a good reminder of how if we go back to the basics of the Psalms, we can be guided from there.” 

Freshman Ashley DeVore said that Ritchey does not hesitate to do what God calls her to do.

“She is so willing to do things that require a lot of courage but also that are going to help others grow in their walk with God,” DeVore said.

Ritchey said she struggled with faith as a child.

“As a child, I wrestled with always knowing there was a God but also not sure of my relation to him,” Ritchey said. “I remember struggling with sin as a child very vividly.”

When Ritchey was nine, she read the children’s version of the Bible with her six-year-old sister. 

“I was afraid that if I became a Christian, I wouldn’t be able to stop sinning but I would be punished more,” Ritchey said.“But when I got baptized at nine, I just sobbed the whole time. It was at that point that I realized that it was only by God’s power that I could not sin, and that was extremely freeing.” 

Ritchey credits her family for helping her grow in her relationship with Christ.

“My mom has been a huge encouragement. She is a huge prayer warrior. She prays more than anybody else I know,” Ritchey said. “Seeing my parents seek God has been a huge blessing. It’s been an interesting experience realizing that we are all extremely broken people and asking, ‘How do we reconcile us seeking God and still being broken?’”

While Ritchey said the struggle with sin is a lifelong journey, memorizing scripture has turned her attention to God’s grace.

“One thing that memorization does that has been a huge blessing is it has given me good things to think about,” Ritchey said. “I will discipline myself to think on these things because Scripture is wholesome.”