Beware of Weak Enemies---and Strong Ones!

An eminent strategist of our time restated the well known truth that it is hazardous either to

underestimate or overestimate an enemy. The soundness of this age-old axiom is readily seen when we

realize that to underestimate an enemy means lack of preparedness on our part, and to overestimate an

enemy may mean that we 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 inside ourselves. There are few, if any, of us who do not have weaknesses that we struggle

with. To name them would be to begin an endlessly long list that runs the whole gamut of human

frailties. But to mention one – we have appetites which may become stronger that we are. We must not

underestimate our appetites lest they be allowed to take tight hold upon us, nor must we overestimate

them, lest we assume that our appetites cannot be overcome, and so find ourselves with habits we wish

we didn’t have, and with the false assumption that they cannot be broken. We must not underestimate

to the point of self-confidence, nor overestimate to the point of defeat, the enemy abroad, the enemy

within our own gates, nor the enemy that intrudes upon our own inner thinking and private living. There

is no enemy so weak but what overconfidence and indifference may help him to defeat us, and no

enemy so strong but what courage and determination and a right cause can conquer.