Page 11 - May 2015 Catalyst

monthsafterthat. Timeaftertime,Iwatched her f ind the strength to keep on going, but los- ing Ritter was just more than she could take. She passed away on December 18, 1998, at the age of 74.
I still think of her lovingly and long to be able to pick up the phone and talk to her once again or drive over for a visit to Whitwell, TN where she spent her last days near the old homestead. It has been seventeen years and I have often wondered, “Where did that strength come from?” But even while I ask the question, I alsoknowtheanswer. Itcamefromasoulwho had a lifetime of struggle, growing up as a coal miner’s daughter in Whitwell, TN, overcom- ing all kinds of difficulties in that growing up period. Itcamefromthehardtimesasayoung teenaged bride of World War II, often referred to as the greatest generation, when wives sent their husbands and mothers sent their sons to a foreign country to fight and win freedom for others from evil dictators who ruthlessly and purposely slaughtered millions of people. Her strength was nurtured in a better America when the nation acknowledged and honored God and the citizens of this country, whether Christian or not, appreciated the morals found in Christianity. And last, but not least, her strength came from God who promises that we are more than conquerors through Him that loves us.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine,ornakedness,orperil,orsword? As it is written: For Your sake we are killed all day long: We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yetinallthesethingswearemore than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans8:35–39 (NKJV)
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