"Because you didn't give up."

I get to hang out with this kid every week. She's probably the deepest 13 14-year-old I've ever met.  She wrote this and it is amazing and is a message that I think many of us need to hear.  Be blessed by her words...

When you have a chronic illness, sometimes you're so sick that you feel like you just can't take it anymore. You just feel like giving up. But when you have a chronic illness, giving up isn't really an option... It's not like you can just stop being sick. It doesn't work that way. So you just have to keep fighting. It's what you're always doing, all day long, every single day. When you're chronically ill, every day is a struggle and a fight. It's a struggle just to get through each day. But every day you're also getting stronger. Even if you don't realize it. Even when you feel like you're the weakest person on the planet. But you're not. In fact, you're really one of the strongest. Most people wouldn't be able to handle going through a fraction of all that you have to go through everyday just to survive. So on the days when you feel like you just spent the whole day being sick and weren't really able to accomplish much - know that just getting through that day was a HUGE accomplishment. And know that you are strong. Very strong. Stronger than you can ever even imagine. Because you didn't give up. You just keep fighting, day in and day out, no matter how hard things get. And that's definitely an accomplishment. That's definitely something to be proud of. You are strong. And you can get through this. You WILL get through this!