Miriam's father had always encouraged his children to memorize Bible verses, so it was only natural that she would pass on that heritage to her own offspring. While his grandfather would offer small sums of money ($1 to $5) to him and the other grandchildren for learning scripture, Ryan hardly needed motivation. The sheer pleasure of learning a new verse seemed to be enough for him. In the summer of 1996 at the age of 6, he stood on a chair in front of 150 people at a family reunion in Colville, Washington, and rattled off Psalm 19. "Ryan just had a real ability to internalize scripture and communicate it," according to Shaun.

"Whenever he had a question, he would stop and ask, 'What does this mean?' or 'Why do we use that word?' You can tell when you watch the videotapes of him reciting Scripture that he knows what he's saying," Miriam reflected.

Ryan's ability to communicate did not stop with scripture, though. He was also a natural on camera. At four, his mother noticed other children acting in commercials. "I thought, 'Ryan could do that,'" Miriam said. An advertising agency in Atlanta agreed with her, and within just a few years he had appeared in print ads and television commercials for AT&T, Speedway Gas, IGA Foods, Columbia Health System and Time Life Video. In 1994, he starred as "Pete" in the video "For Pete’s Sake" with country music singer Susie Luchsinger.