26May11

“No,” snapped the old man, as he scanned the menu. “I won’t have any mushrooms, waiter. I was nearly poisoned by them last week.”
The waiter leaned confidingly across the table.
“Is that really so sir?” he said, blandly. “Then I’ve won my bet with the cook.”

Two of the greatest problems you have throughout life and especially in your later years are fear and worry. Here is where religion will help you the most. You can turn your fears and worries over to a power higher than your own and get results.
Two ailments fear and worry. They bring on heart attacks, strokes, mental disturbances, as well as many other things. You have heard or read that much of your fear and anxiety is over things that never happen.
Whether you like to admit it or not, you must agree that fear is a major problem in the life of each of us.
We have public fears and we have private fears.
Fear is good in some instances, for it is a motivating power that causes you to go forward and make progress, but it should not be allowed to go untrammeled such that it becomes so devastating a factor as to produce failure. The problem is not how to get rid of fear, but how to use it properly. Wild animals would not live long if they did not respond actively to their sense of fear.
Someone has said that the basis of action should be love and not fear. Theoretically that is true, but in practice it does not work out that way. You pay your income taxes, but you do not love doing so. Fear of a penalty motivates you. You see, there are legitimate fears. Fear of ignorance causes you to seek an education, and fear of poverty makes you work. Fear of disease motivates you to practice healthy and sanitary living. So you see fear is very important in your life if acted upon intelligently. You must learn to distinguish helpful and harmful fears.