At a recent conference, I shared the platform with my friend Camille. Actually, she doesn’t speak. Camille is an interpreter for the deaf who often...

Joni and Friends Blog

06.06.2025

Get Ready | Joni and Friends

Life, as we know it, will be turned upside down when the trumpet sounds for our journey to heaven. We will have to rethink everything in light...

Joni and Friends Blog

06.06.2025

New Beginnings: A Family’s Transformation Through the Love of Joni and Friends Family Retreat | Joni and Friends

These are the words Paul used to describe the state of his beautiful family years ago as they rolled up—very late—to their first Joni and...

Joni and Friends Blog

05.06.2025

The Heart of Jesus | Joni and Friends

What do you think was on the Lord’s heart when he healed those who were paralyzed? When he opened the eyes of the blind? What was the Lord feeling...

Joni and Friends Blog

04.06.2025

Families with Disabilities Experience God’s Love at Family Retreat | Joni and Friends

Jennifer can recount the story like it was yesterday: how her eight-year-old daughter Tana went from healthy to fighting for her life…

Joni and Friends Blog

04.06.2025

For God so Loved the World | Joni and Friends

Gloria Hawley, a friend of mine, fell into deep anguish over the bleak prognosis of her daughter’s illness. Little Laura, it seemed, had already suffered...

Joni and Friends Blog

03.06.2025

Crown of Splendor | Joni and Friends

When Ken and I were in Russia, we befriended an old woman who cleaned the floors of our hotel lobby every day. Through an interpreter, we complimented...

Joni and Friends Blog

02.06.2025

Sacrificial Love and Long-Term Care: Living Out Christ’s Example | Joni and Friends

My friend Larry lived for over 40 years with quadriplegia. He had come to Christ shortly after his accident and his wife was able to take good care of him...

Joni and Friends Blog

02.06.2025

Sitting…Carrying | Joni and Friends

Remember the story in Luke chapter 5 about the four friends who carried their paralyzed companion to see Jesus? Do you recall how they couldn’t squeeze...

Joni and Friends Blog

01.06.2025

Let Go and Let God? | Joni and Friends

A phrase like “Let go and let God” sounds good, but it raises questions. Who does all the work as we grow in Christ? Do we give in to God, making certain...

Joni and Friends Blog

30.05.2025

Memories | Joni and Friends

Pleasant memories are just like precious snapshots in an old favorite photo album. Every once in a while you flip through them to recall warm...

Joni and Friends Blog

29.05.2025

Getting Rid of Fear | Joni and Friends

Since the days of Eden, people have been haunted by fear of each side of the grave. As the old song goes, “I’m tired of living but scared of dying.

Joni and Friends Blog

28.05.2025

The Irony of God | Joni and Friends

The dictionary defines irony as “a combination of circumstances that is the opposite of what might be expected.” God specializes in irony. I was reminded...

Joni and Friends Blog

27.05.2025

Body Building | Joni and Friends

His name was Tom. He lived with quadriplegia and depended on a ventilator to help him breathe. He sat beside me in a bulky wheelchair during occupational...

Joni and Friends Blog

26.05.2025

Exchange the Heartbreak | Joni and Friends

When God parted the Red Sea, he told Moses to raise his staff. But after that miracle, Moses referred to that staff as … the staff of God...

Joni and Friends Blog

25.05.2025

Sharing in God’s Nature | Joni and Friends

Just as the great and precious promise of the Old Testament was the seed of the woman, the Messiah, so the great promise of the New Testament...

Joni and Friends Blog

24.05.2025

Being Clothed | Joni and Friends

The Apostle Paul wrote wistfully about the resurrection body, and my sentiments are his. I too groan over my earthly tent. Age, disease, or disability...

Joni and Friends Blog

23.05.2025

Dead to Sin. Alive to God | Joni and Friends

I can hear you saying, “But that’s impossible. We may be Christians, but we’re still human beings and sin is a fact of life.” Yes, I agree that sin...

Joni and Friends Blog

22.05.2025

No Longer a Slave to Sin | Joni and Friends

The death of our old self is positional, which means that when we became a part of Christ, our old self was shattered, fatally wounded, rendered inoperative...

Joni and Friends Blog

21.05.2025

Hearts Fully Committed | Joni and Friends

Distractions have a way of getting us sidetracked spiritually and off-base emotionally. Have you ever prayed for someone only to remember...

Joni and Friends Blog

21.05.2025

Living Sacrifices | Joni and Friends

What immediately comes to mind when you hear the word “sacrifice”? Articles in National Geographic magazines about bloody offerings in Aztec temples...

Joni and Friends Blog

19.05.2025

When We’re All Grown Up: A Biblical Look at Spiritual Growth | Joni and Friends

Remember how it was? We couldn’t wait to grow up. From seven years old to seventeen we felt a mounting frustration inside that we could never experience life...

Joni and Friends Blog

19.05.2025

His Workmanship | Joni and Friends

The first time I saw myself in my wheelchair in a full-length mirror, I cried. I’d just been released from the hospital and friends took me to a shopping...

Joni and Friends Blog

18.05.2025

Who’s The Enemy? | Joni and Friends

You’ve had it happen. You read a book on marriage with your spouse, set goals, make promises, and six months later the situation is the same...

Joni and Friends Blog

17.05.2025

The Prayers of Jesus | Joni and Friends

When Jesus went off to quiet places early in the morning to pray, what did he pray about? If you could have been close enough to cup your ear, what...

Joni and Friends Blog

16.05.2025

I’ll Be Back | Joni and Friends

Close-up of a hand holding a compass, with a river and the sun visible in the background.

Joni and Friends Blog

16.05.2025

How to Battle Depression with Scripture, Prayer, and Gratitude | Joni and Friends

Over the years, I have had to climb my way up out of depression time and time again. At first, my depression came from the great disappointment...

Joni and Friends Blog

15.05.2025

How God Redeemed My Life in the Face of Anguish | Joni and Friends

When I started to seriously consider the lordship of Christ in my life, I wanted to get rid of everything that reminded me of my “bad old days...

Joni and Friends Blog

15.05.2025

Yardsticks | Joni and Friends

Christians know that it’s wrong to compare, yet our culture has more sociological groupings and measurements than you can shake a yardstick at...

Joni and Friends Blog

15.05.2025

A Mother’s Request | Joni and Friends

The mother of James and John asked the Lord to bestow honor on her sons but was told instead they would drink from the same cup as the Lord’s...

Joni and Friends Blog

13.05.2025

Be Personal | Joni and Friends

God always uses such intimate language when he relates to us. He paints warm images of sheltering us under his wings, holding us in the...

Joni and Friends Blog

12.05.2025

God’s Kindness | Joni and Friends

My friend Tim once went duck hunting; halfway down the lake, a truck was parked (guys drinking, cutting up). Tim yelled to them to “Be quiet...

Joni and Friends Blog

11.05.2025

Meditating | Joni and Friends

Memorizing Scripture, especially paragraphs of Scripture, sounds so time-consuming. Little wonder people say, “I can’t...where will I find the time

Joni and Friends Blog

10.05.2025

Memorizing | Joni and Friends

There’s hardly a Christian who doesn’t wish his thought life were more pure. After all, the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all...

Joni and Friends Blog

09.05.2025

A Learning Experience | Joni and Friends

I have quadriplegia, but I can drive a van (it doesn’t have a steering wheel, but that’s another story). Recently I cruised into the drive-thru lane...

Joni and Friends Blog

09.05.2025

The Journey of a Mother Raising a Son with Special Needs | Joni and Friends

It wasn’t until the third ultrasound of Roberta’s pregnancy that she and her husband Steve got the news… you’re going to have twins. They were born a week...

Joni and Friends Blog

08.05.2025

Shattered Glass | Joni and Friends

My art studio is a mess of half-chewed pastel pencils, old tubes of paint, and piles of illustrations overflowing my file drawers. Recently while cleaning up...

Joni and Friends Blog

07.05.2025

Imelda’s Story of New Faith and Purpose | Joni and Friends

Working as a physical therapist at a rehab center in Ciudad de México, Imelda spent her days helping people recover...

Joni and Friends Blog

07.05.2025

Purify Yourself | Joni and Friends

It is rare to find believers who nail their sin to the cross desiring, like the Apostle John, to lean upon the breast of Christ. It is rare to find believers...

Joni and Friends Blog

06.05.2025

Rewards | Joni and Friends

Pain and problems do one more thing. If in our trials we are faithful, suffering wins us rich rewards in heaven.

home›Joni and Friends Blog›Kids & Parenting

Joni and Friends Blog - Kids & Parenting

Body Parts | Joni and Friends

Get Ready | Joni and Friends

New Beginnings: A Family’s Transformation Through the Love of Joni and Friends Family Retreat | Joni and Friends

The Heart of Jesus | Joni and Friends

Families with Disabilities Experience God’s Love at Family Retreat | Joni and Friends

For God so Loved the World | Joni and Friends

Crown of Splendor | Joni and Friends

Sacrificial Love and Long-Term Care: Living Out Christ’s Example | Joni and Friends

Sitting…Carrying | Joni and Friends

Let Go and Let God? | Joni and Friends

Memories | Joni and Friends

Getting Rid of Fear | Joni and Friends

The Irony of God | Joni and Friends

Body Building | Joni and Friends

Exchange the Heartbreak | Joni and Friends

Sharing in God’s Nature | Joni and Friends

Being Clothed | Joni and Friends

Dead to Sin. Alive to God | Joni and Friends

No Longer a Slave to Sin | Joni and Friends

Hearts Fully Committed | Joni and Friends

Living Sacrifices | Joni and Friends

When We’re All Grown Up: A Biblical Look at Spiritual Growth | Joni and Friends

His Workmanship | Joni and Friends

Who’s The Enemy? | Joni and Friends

The Prayers of Jesus | Joni and Friends

I’ll Be Back | Joni and Friends

How to Battle Depression with Scripture, Prayer, and Gratitude | Joni and Friends

How God Redeemed My Life in the Face of Anguish | Joni and Friends

Yardsticks | Joni and Friends

A Mother’s Request | Joni and Friends

Be Personal | Joni and Friends

God’s Kindness | Joni and Friends

Meditating | Joni and Friends

Memorizing | Joni and Friends

A Learning Experience | Joni and Friends

The Journey of a Mother Raising a Son with Special Needs | Joni and Friends

Shattered Glass | Joni and Friends

Imelda’s Story of New Faith and Purpose | Joni and Friends

Purify Yourself | Joni and Friends

Rewards | Joni and Friends

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