Beware of Weak Enemies---and Strong Ones!

One of the strategists of our day has restated the axiom that it is hazardous either to underestimate or to overestimate an enemy. The soundness of this age-old truth is readily seen when we realize that to underestimate an enemy means lack of preparedness on our part, and to overestimate him may mean that we shall defeat ourselves by assuming that we are defeated. This common-sense conclusion has its application not only in the field of physical combat but also in the personal struggles that go on within our own lives. There are few of us, if any, who do not have weaknesses that we struggle with. To begin to name them would be to begin an endless list that runs the whole gamut of human frailties. But to suggest onewe have appetites, which, out of control, may become stronger than we are. We must no underestimate those appetites lest they be allowed to take firm hold upon us, nor must we overestimate them, lest in attributing to them too much strength, we assume that our appetites cannot be overcome, and so yield to them, to find ourselves with habits we cannot break, involved in a patter we are too weak to change. We must not underestimate to the point of self-confidence, nor overestimate to the point of defeatism the enemy abroad, the enemy within our own gates, nor the enemy that intrudes upon our own thinking and living, because there is no enemy so weak but what overconfidence and indifference may help him to defeat us, and no enemy so strong but what, with humility and determination and a right cause, may be conquered.