Once upon a time, Jake and Fear were friends. Fear was Jake's constant companion, and Fear helped him a lot. Fear saved him from lots of troubles and dangers, and helped him choose right paths and ways in his life.

Whenever Jake would carelessly go with the wrong company of ?friends? or make a very careless decision, Fear would butt in and remind him of his father's counsels and admonitions. When walking right in danger's path, Fear would whisper a word of warning to dissuade him from proceeding.

Fear would also tell him the proper behavior when Jake was in front of the elderly and other people in authority. Fear would give him the ability to do and say only the respectful and kind words to people. Fear would also tell him to be polite and humble when there was a conflict with people he was related with. In short, Fear has been helping him to keep out of troubles and dangers. Fear was really a friend. Jake liked Fear's company.

Then one day, Jake met Doubt. Doubt seemed very concerned and sincere about Jake. Doubt said his closeness to Fear was remarkable ? but alarming. Doubt threw lies about Fear, distorting the truth that Jake knew about Fear. Worse, Doubt said Fear was actually taking him to a perilous direction, with Jake being unaware.

Jake asked Fear about the things Doubt told him. They had some discussions that somehow went a bit sour. They parted ways with some misunderstandings.

Then one day, Jake heard that Fear had suddenly died.

Doubt lost no time in scaring Jake about Fear. Doubt said that Fear's premature death and his unsettled ?dispute? with Jake might cause Fear to come back from the dead. Thus, the ghost of fear started to haunt Jake. He would remember the times when Fear accompanied him and warned him of bad things. But this time, he feared the voice of Fear.

The more Jake listened to Doubt, the worse he became afraid of Fear. Fear seemed to be no longer a friend, but a spooky entity that sought his destruction.

End of the parable.

The best way to ?exorcize? or get rid of these ?ghosts? of fear is to make fear somehow a friend again. You can use your fear to help you if you face the truth about it. Your negative imagination creates your ghosts. A crazy imagination is good if you use it to create a ?friendly? ghost. This is what I recommend.

The book of Proverbs states: ?The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.?