I sit here excited, comforted, and encouraged. And hopefully by the end of this post, you will be too! Last Friday, I posted a survey, asking you to help complete it. The survey was about the book I am working on for other teens who are wrestling through faith in the midst of chronic illness and long-term sickness, titled “He’s Making Diamonds”.
I was so blessed by all of the responses you all sent in! Keep sending them!* Everything you guys had to say was very insightful, and will definitely play a part in what I will be putting into this book. The biggest thing that encouraged me, however, was that all the questions you are wrestling with, trying to work through and sort out -all of your struggles and also the things that you have learned- they were all the same things I’ve been wondering about or grappling with. And not only were they the same things that I have been/am struggling with, your answers were the same as each other’s answers!
Friends, I know it is SO easy to feel like we’re all alone in this fight. We aren’t. There are so many more people in the same battle you are in, you just don’t realize it yet! Something I’ve noticed as I meet more and more young people with chronic illnesses, is that they often don’t feel comfortable talking about their illnesses. I can understand that, but in some ways, I think that it hinders us- a lot! It leaves us to fight by ourselves, and it leaves us feeling all alone. We aren’t!
Not only are we not alone in our illnesses, but we are not alone in our questions about them (like I mentioned earlier). It’s easy to think that we are the only ones that have such weaknesses as questions. It’s easy to think that other people who have stood where we’ve stood must have been stronger than we are. They must have known something we didn’t. But that is exactly what the devil wants us to think!
God has created us to be iron sharpening iron (Proverbs 27:27). He has created the body of believers, of which He is the head. We can encourage and challenge one another. We don’t have to be alone. 🙂
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. -1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV)
I’m not saying that you have to go and tell the world the details of your life and sickness… I know that there are still things that are hard to talk about. And that there are people who make it difficult to speak. But let me encourage you: you are not alone. You are not alone. 🙂
*If you have not taken the survey but would like to, click on the following link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeVjsCMsUfp_2AG_BuhT8Ab5fvGNSFumGSst_cl6EF3bSUZ8Q/viewform?usp=sf_link
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