Many of life's challenges revolve around our reaction to fear.  We are afraid of death, pain, separation, prejudice, fear of what others think of us, afraid to succeed or fail, illness, losing independence or of becoming independent, fear of having or not having significant relationships, fear of being alone or with many people, wars, unknown, the dark, fire, freezing cold, hunger, loss of job, home or faith, fear of facing bullies or relative safety in going along with the crowd, fear of not passing the tests in life.  We make life decisions based on avoiding or facing fear.  It is our constant companion that is unrelenting and burdensome.  Fear determines whether we have courage or cowardice.  When fear rules our lives, we are the losers because we are avoiding or reacting to fear rather than standing up to it with courage and faith.  Sometimes we are losing the battle with fear because we look the other way, ignore situations because we want to be safe for the moment.  We lose our compassion because the person we are not helping will someday be ourselves.  Hitler was able to control his part of the world because of the fear he generated.  He did not succeed because of the courage of those who put themselves in jeopardy to rise up against injustice with courage and faith.  Life is filled with those little moments of panic because we are called to stand up to bullies, cruelty, hatred, injustice, and evil.  Every day we need to pray for the faith to do the right thing and "pay it forward."  It is difficult but necessary for our self-esteem as we keep our world safe and secure for our next generations. If we have courage in the small decisions we will definitely have the ability to face the larger issues.  I personally am sorry for all of the times I have been a coward, especially when I did not act but stood by as an observer.  I pray I will do better in the future.