My husband, Cal, grew increasingly displeased as our teenage daughter and her boyfriend studied in her room late one evening. Finally losing patience shortly after midnight, he knocked sharply on her door. Her boyfriend immediately opened it and asked if something was wrong.

"I have to ask you to move your car," Cal told him.

"Oh, sure. Is it in someone's way?"

"No," Cal replied, "it's at the wrong address."

I've been there, and when you are a parent in this condition the feelings of Dad are perfectly normal, so think not I am against him. However, I want to point out something - - - his fears come from his imagination.

That's right and that is where all fear comes from. You see there is nothing wrong with a boy and a girl being in a room alone together. What happened was the father was, in his imagination, thinking they were doing something other than what they said they were. It proved out they were not but that is not what the father feared.

Being a parent I know that the pull of emotions and the sex drive in kids is very strong. I've been there too. So I know it is a natural worry.

Yet it is exactly this same process that goes on whenever we fear anything. Most of the time it is not what is actually happening that is fearful but what we think about it.

That means our fears can come under our own control and therefore need not cause us to make wrong judgments, take wrong actions, or say wrong things.

Think on that for a minute. How much better would your life be if you had that kind of control over your thinking that you cut out half of the fears you have in your life?

If there is one characteristic that dominates the actions of people in this world it is fear. We fear the boss, we fear we might lose what we have if we don't act exactly right. Even some of our religion is practiced on the basis of fear that we won't go to heaven if we don't go to church. Fear exists in all people everyday and it keeps most from being who they could really be.

Knowing this can now give you the power to take control of your life rather than being led around by your fears. Remember ...

All Fears Are Imagined

©2005

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