Friends Love!

Friendship is an immeasurable gift that we give to each other. When it’s done right, it’s a true depiction of what love should look like. Real friends love….and they love hard (Prov 17:17). They put each other’s needs ahead of their own. If they know Jesus, they pray for each other and provide for each other. They are there when everyone else has gone home making sure the other is okay. They sacrifice for each other. (Prov 18:24)

Recently, I had two friends on different occasions come to visit me in my new city. Both of them, even though they were traveling spent time with me preparing my new home so I would be closer to fully living in the house. They didn’t have to do that. They could have come to visit and just hung out in the city. However, they put my needs ahead of their desire to sightsee or spend time being entertained. That is what real friendship looks like. It looks like identifying a need for someone close and working to meet it. 

I’ve been blessed with amazing friends and I don’t mean acquaintances. Friends are not just the ones I laugh and joke with. They are not just the ones I share a meal with. They are the ones who know the deeper parts of me and they show up. The thing about friendship is that it’s a two-way street. You can’t expect someone else to do all the giving and you never provide anything to the relationship. That is called taking advantage of someone’s generosity.

So, if you find yourself short on people who will go the extra mile for you and are true friends, consider whether you are being a true friend or not. And the flip side of that is if you have people who manipulate and use you, you should reevaluate those relationships and make sure they are ones you should hold on to. Life (in the earth) is too short to be distracted.