Quotes from Joni Eareckson Tada

I'd learned that you can't wear a crown unless you bear a cross - that if our Savior had learned obedience through suffering, we should expect the same.

Your cross is your attitude about your dead-end job and your in-laws. It is your attitude about your aches and pains. Any complaints, any grumblings, any disputings or murmurings, any anxieties, any worries, any resentments or anything that hints of a raging torrent of bitterness--these are the things God calls me to die to daily.

Maybe the truly handicapped people are the ones that don't need God as much.

Oh, my goodness, when you're a mother and you just give birth to a child with spina bifida and - or Down's Syndrome or cerebral palsy, there's a bit of a shock you're going to have to go through, a bit of an adjustment curve.

But when God speaks, it's silver. Psalm 12:6 says, "The words of the LORD are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace…purified seven times." Purity and silver go together best when it comes to describing God's Word. Why does God choose this precious metal? Perhaps it's because gold requires impurities so it can bond. But not silver. God is less interested in attractiveness and more interested in purity.

God wants us to be a good example to others who are observing us.

It's music that can only come from particular instruments, broken in particular ways, and yielded with particular humility. I also believe it brings God glory in a way that is completely unique on earth or in the heavens. And that's a thought that keeps me going, too.

To hunger is to be human, but to hunger for God is to feed on Him. Hunger and thirst after His righteousness and feed on Him in your heart. Taste and see that the Lord is good; it is He who will fill you to satisfaction.

Steve introduced me to the process of putting God's Word into practice, of acting on His promises and commands. I would read something in the Bible and consciously say, "This is God's will." Intellectually, I understood the meaning of it. Emotionally, I had to put this new truth to the test, to prove it by my own will. "Yes, this is God's will," adding, "for me.

This sin-stained planet would have ripped apart at the seams long ago were it not for the restraining hand of God.

Heartache forces us to embrace God out of desparate, urgent need. God is never closer than when your heart is aching.

When suffering hits us broadside, it's bound to shake our faith a little—just as if we were driving across a high bridge in a compact car and got hit by a great gust of wind. You have to make sure you have both hands on the wheel! But trials are also meant to waken us to the truth of Daniel 11:32 (ESV), where it says, "The people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.