to get by

For all these years, I've lived under the illusion that, somehow, I made it because I was tough enough to overpower the abuse, the hatred, the hard knocks of life....

I was wrong. I would rather say, I really made it because God's love is so powerful that tiny little doses of it are enough to overcome the pains of the worst things that life dished out on me. 

Toughness was a faulty coping mechanism I devised to get by. But, in reality, it has been God's love that strengthened my ability to cope up, never give up, to keep seeking His love, and  to make that love last long enough to sustain strength in me. That’s what has gotten me by.