Fear of the Lord, a dread of offending our beloved creator, is only the beginning of wisdom, and true fear of the Lord leads not to paralysis but to freedom and great love. But the fear that seems so predominant in the world today is not the fear of the Lord. Rather, it seems to bring mistrust and doubt, skepticism, rumors, dissension. It causes us to try harder and harder to gain control of things we cannot control, and can cause us not to act at all or to not act as we should for fear of the unknown.