Watch Care
Watch Care
By Lecia Crider
A few weeks ago I was having a personal challenge that was new to me. My inexperience with this type of situation had me feeling vulnerable, worried, and a bit shaken. I didn’t know what to do. Luckily, I knew someone who did.
Linda (name has been changed) used to live in my neighborhood. We attended The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints together, but even more than that, Linda was my ministering sister.
A ministering assignment in the church is a request to hold special watch care over certain individuals or families. When the system works properly, everyone in the congregation is watching over someone, and everyone is being watched over by someone. A few people opt out of participating, but I’ve always liked the feeling of someone having my back, and having someone else’s in return.
Linda was busy and so was I. We didn’t touch base often when she was serving as my ministering sister, but she popped by now and then for a good chat, or to drop off a gourmet cookie (my weakness). Over time, we became friends.
Eventually, Linda moved out of the neighborhood and we saw each other even less often, maybe once or twice a year.
During her time as my ministering sister, Linda confessed to me more than once that she thought she was terrible at it, because our visits had been infrequent and often we talked about some problems going on in her life at the time (she felt like we should be talking about me instead).
She was actually fantastic at it. Here’s how I know: when a trial popped up in my life that somewhat mirrored what she had already gone through, she was the first person I reached out to, even though it had been years since she had served as my ministering sister.
“I need your advice, can we have lunch?” I texted.
We did. She couldn’t solve my problem, of course, but she gave me some wise counsel about how to handle myself. Our lunch bolstered my spirits and made me feel a bit more in control. There were things I could do! Things that had helped Linda and might help me, too.
Maybe you belong to the same church I do and you’ve wondered about the point of ministering. Well, I’ll tell you. It’s friendship. It’s watch care. It’s, slowly but surely, building that village of support we all need, and it’s worth it.
Maybe you worship in a faith that has a different kind of watch care tradition. Or maybe you’d like to have that feeling of family in your community. Start by finding one person you can watch over. Have regular interactions with them. It doesn’t have to be fancy (cookies do help, though). Then, find one person you can reach out to when you need help.
We all need people, and we all want to feel needed. This is the gift that ministering to each other gives us.
