Watching With Someone

Love and support for family and friends are important to me.  I want my loved ones to know they can count on me. I feel good when I realize I've been loving and supportive and sad and disappointed when I'm not. 

I try to be mindful of how I knew what someone needed - or conversely, how did I miss the need? Hopefully through this mindfulness and prayer I can get better at watching, supporting, and loving.

Each time I read about Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, I am reminded of being there for each other. The scriptures have rich accounts of Jesus and his disciples the last few days of Christ's time here on earth. The disciples are eager in their support for Christ. 

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ told his disciples to wait while he went further into the garden to pray. He asked Peter, James, and John to come with him. He told these three that he was "very heavy," "sore amazed," and "sorrowful." Then he asked them to watch with him. He was asking for support as he went off to pray and deal with those things that were making him feel heavy and sorrowful. 

Christ came back from prayer with his Heavenly Father and found these three trusted men asleep. He woke them and asked "Could ye not watch with me one hour?" Again, he asked them to "watch and pray." Christ went off to pray again and came back to find them asleep again. Mark's account says they didn't know what to say to Christ this time. Peter, James, and John were still asleep when Christ came back the third time. Christ told them it was time to go. Matthew 26: 36-46

How do I become more sensitive and alert so I can sense who needs me to watch with them? How do I maintain strength and health so I can keep watching with someone during his hours, days, weeks, and years of heaviness and sorrow?

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