1. Tell us about you! Who you married, where you live, how long you’ve been married, where did you go on a honeymoon, how many kids and ages if you want.                                                                                                                                                                                   This is Christy Ritter, at Summitview Church in Fort Collins, Colorado. I am married to Aaron and we just celebrated our 21^st anniversary in May. For our honeymoon, we went to Sun Valley, Idaho, which is a ski town but was basically empty in the summer, so it was quiet and relaxing, minus Aaron getting horribly sick. Thankfully, neither of us had jobs so we were able to stay an extra week once he felt better.

We are blessed with four kids, Caleb (18), Micah (16), Daniel (14) and Abby (10). I am looking shorter and shorter each year. The picture I attached was from a wonderful trip to Alaska (where I was born and raised) last summer.

2. What are your hobbies? How did you get started on them?

I don’t have time for many hobbies. I do enjoy cooking and baking and sharing food with others, which I have enjoyed since getting married and cooking consistently. We host a lot of events at our house and I enjoy helping with the meals that happen at our house and other events. This may not seem like a hobby to some of you, but I have always loved science and majored in science in college. I have taught homeschool science classes in a variety of contexts for several years, and I do really love it and it feels like an act of worship as I think deeper about this amazing, beautiful, complex world that God has made. I bring out my microscope to look at specimens frequently! Because I have had periods of my life that I couldn’t walk (three knee surgeries), I also love to walk and hike, so anytime I have the chance, I will go for a walk (and possibly collect specimens to look at more closely!)

3. Who has been an influential person in your life? Would you tell us about them?

This may be cheating, but I am reading a book about Amy Carmichael, the missionary to India, right now, and I have certainly been impacted by her story! I could quote almost the whole book, but I’ll just share a few thoughts:

When struggling, Amy would say to herself, “Don’t be a baby, Amy. Sing a hymn and look ahead.”

“Amy’s aim: to lead children out of themselves and into service for others, ‘untarnished by earthly thoughts.’”

When praying for a dear sister who later died, “Amy laid a palm branch across her bed as a sign of victory and accepted whatever answer God might give, certain that whether it was physical healing or not, He would give victory and peace. It was an act of faith accompanied by the anguish of doubt and desire which had to be brought again and again under the authority of the Master.”

I appreciate how each of the above quotes expresses a reorientation that must happen in our hearts when we are struggling, either with overwhelming daily life, thinking I am the center of the universe, or in deep grief and sorrow. Praise the Lord He is right there, ready to help me.

4. What is something the Lord has been teaching you recently?

 I was reading in Mark recently and was thinking about how Jesus dealt with tough situations, like 5000 hungry people, sinners, and unclean Gentiles expressing faith. The disciples’ solution was often “send them away” to deal with their problems on their own, but Jesus never said that. He always had a plan to connect with that person or people in each interaction and draw them closer to Himself. Like the disciples, when tough situations come, my flesh says, “Send them away!” I have been convicted to instead ask Jesus to work in the situation and show Himself to the people involved and to me, and to help me understand grace more. I don’t want a God who sends me away, so why would I want Him to send others away?!

5. What can we be praying for you this month?

I would love prayer for navigating some transitions in our family. Our oldest just graduated from high school, and while he will still be around next year finishing an associates at our community college, he will be more involved in our church’s college group and becoming more and more independent from our little family. He will also be building new relationships as some of his closest high school friends go in different directions. I want to move through this next season well and with wisdom and guide him and his siblings through it well too, and I want him to develop new godly and deep friendships.