A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. Proverbs 17:17

Love isn’t like your favorite chocolate cake that can only be divided into a finite number of pieces. For example, when you have a second child, you get to experience your love multiply instead of being divided. You don’t love your first child any less, you simply have new love to give to your the second child.

Releasing our view of love as a commodity is helpful when jealousy enters our friendships as adults. When a woman named Daphni connected with her close friend, Carrie, she found herself feeling jealous when Carrie went to dinner with another friend and didn’t invite her. It hurt because Daphni felt like she wasn’t getting as much cake as her status as Carrie’s best friend warranted. But we do a disservice to ourselves and our friends when we expect one person to fulfill all our emotional needs and be 100% available to us,100% of the time.

Jesus traveled with 12 friends almost constantly, and they argued among themselves about their status with Him. Jesus related to them in different ways because they were unique individuals (John 21:15-25)! Jesus also took time away from all of them sometimes. None of that was an absence of Jesus’ love for His friends.

Instead of feeling robbed of love if your best friend has plans that don’t include you, be confident that that’s not less love for you. Take the opportunity to remind someone else in your life that you love them.

Resource reading: Luke 22:24-30