What deserves our fears?

Fear: An unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.

There is such thing as rational and irrational fear.  We as humans have different amounts of each.  Yes, deer kill more people annually than sharks do, but how could you not be afraid of sharks?  We base our fears on what we see as scary traits and the things that haunt us in our nightmares.  We base our fears on what we find different from the norm.  We even base our fears on people or events that happened in our past. 

Irrational fears- the ones that control you.  They stay in the back of your mind and affect everything that you do.  I think that most people’s fears are irrational.  People, including myself, worry about pointless things such as heights, their reputation, shark attacks, snakes, what kind of car that they’ll drive, what college they’ll get accepted into, etc.  The fears that are less important in the scheme of life, but play a key role.  Sometimes, fear is overrated.  We allow our mind to play tricks on us and before anything has even happened.  We begin to think, “What if?”  This then leads to the domino effect that causes an unnecessary amount of anxiety. 

A rational fear has a strong verifiable, basis in reality.   These are the ones that can keep us alive at times.  For example, my mother could have a rational fear of getting breast cancer when she is older because her mother had it.  However, she doesn't let this control her life.  Much less, she’s not sitting around waiting for it to happen either.  That’s the thing though; it’s what you decide to do with your fears.  Do you let them control you?  While some fears are necessary, majority of them are not.

If you’re a Christian, this is where your faith plays a key role in fears.  You have no control over your fate, but you do control how you spend the time that you have.  As teenagers, we don’t know our exact future, but we know what we want to do in order to make a great one.  We don’t know when we’ll die, but we choose not to worry about that and let it control our lives.  We don’t know who we’ll end up marrying, but spending our time wisely with the one who makes us happy in our lives right now.  If you think about it though, why is it that we understand all of this? We lean on God, not our fears and reality.  Even though I choose to understand the fact that God has my life in his hands, I still have my fears.  I have plenty of fears.  It's normal for human beings to have them.  

Of course, crimes and the abuse of drugs deserve our fears.  Losing a friend or a loved one deserves them as well.   Most importantly, what deserves our fears is the fact that hate, not love, is on the rise.  People are fighting with each other more and more every day.   Taking prayer out of public, institutional events is now a debate and the rate of Atheism is growing.  Basically, anything that blocks our ultimate goal in life, which is getting to heaven, deserves our fears.   

Whole Person Score

If life were to have a Whole Person Score (WPS), attributes that should be included should be spiritual, physical, and academic qualities.  These could be divided up in 33.33% each. These three qualities complement each other.  One without the other makes less than a whole person.  

Spiritual qualities 33.33%

- Involve their faith in a higher power

- The ability to be kind to others 

- Treating others the way that you would want to be treated

* The spiritual qualities are very important to me.  It shows that they are strong Christians and believe in treating everyone with respect.  

Physical qualities 33.33%

-  Being active, enjoying the outdoors, and exercising 

- Keeping up good health 

- Taking care of one’s self 

* Physical qualities are important because it shows that they have respect for themselves and believe in staying healthy. By taking care of yourself physically, you are enabling yourself to take care of those that you love and care about. You are also contributing to society because you are doing your part in keeping down health care costs. 

Academic qualities 33.33%

- The ability to do the very best that they can for their selves and their family 11

- Helping to educate others about bettering themselves instead of relying on others such as the government to take care of them 11

- Staying thirsty for knowledge 9

* Academic qualities are very important. It shows that one has the intrinsic desire to always do their best and learn more in life.  There's no limit in learning. 

Rating myself

- When it comes to spiritual qualities, I would give myself about a 28% out of 33.33%.  I need to work on my faith.  I gave myself a 9% out of 11 % on this one because at times I tend to forget that God is in control and has a plan for me.  On being kind to others, I gave myself a 10% out of 11%.  When I become stressed and angry with my life, I tend to take it out on others.  For the most part though, I try to be nice to everyone.  On treating others the way that I would want to be treated, I gave myself a 9% out of 11%.  Sometimes it's hard to remember that others have it a lot worse than me.  I need to work on realizing that if I was in a bad position, I would want someone to be nice to me.  

- When it comes to physical qualities, I would give myself 31% out of 33.33%.  I love being outdoors, exercising, and staying active.  If I'm not doing something constantly, I become bored.  I gave myself an 11% out of 11% on this one.  Keeping up good health is a number one to me and my family.  At times, I will eat unhealthy, so I need to work on that.  I gave myself a 10% out of 11%.  I do fairly well at taking care of myself.  I try and keep up a good appearance and eat healthy.  I gave myself a 10% out of 11%. 

- Academic qualities play a huge role in my life.  I gave myself a 30% out of 33.33%.  I put 110% in everything that I do.  What keeps me motivated is that if it's not an "A," then it's not good enough.  On doing the very best that I can, I gave myself an 11% out of 11%.  When it comes to educating others and bettering themselves, I gave myself a 10%.  I believe that I lead by example.  Even my friends know that I do all of my homework, I stress out if it's not perfect, and I try to influence them in a positive manner.  On staying thirsty for knowledge, I gave myself a 9% out of 11%.  I'll be the first one to admit that it's easy for a teenager to become lazy, especially when it comes to learning.  I need to work on this, so that I can keep my motivation up for learning more.  My generation is responsible for tomorrow's society.