There are only three things of which I am afraid:  1)  Near miss car accidents; 2)  bats; and 3) mice.  Let's be honest -- numbers two and three are so close to the same thing they might as well be the same thing so we'll add a new item 3:  things that go bump in the night.  Especially when I am home alone.

Near miss car accidents because they are so... sudden.  You're driving along and BAM! something jumps out of nowhere, like a tree, and you almost hit it.

Bats and mice... because they're bats and mice.

Then... the things that go bump in the night.  That noise that sounds like... something.... and because it's what scares me, I don't go and check it out.  Why would I?  It made a noise.  

It's the fear of the unknown.  The car that swerves in front of you... the vermin crawling out from a hole in the ground or swooping on you when you least expect it.  And the unknown noise.  All pretty scary things.

I know the root of my problem when it comes to noises -- too many horror movies as a young girl.  I watched them all:  babysitter in the house alone, or the weird guy who hasn't changed out of his hockey mask after practice, the crazed lunatic with a chain saw.  And the junk that my mind absorbed during those movies has stuck with me these 40... er...20.... ummmm... ok, fine, 25 years later.

Let's be honest here... it's really not the fear of the unknown as much as it is the garbage with which I filled my head for years.  And years.  Ok... and years.

Psalm 101:3 I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.  Like movies of things that make me afraid.    I need to guard what I read, watch on television and movies.  Those things stick with a person.

I know it's all make believe, but some of it sure seems real enough.  It seems real because of all of the highly-paid special effects people in Hollywood.  Real enough to make me afraid when I'm home.  Alone.  At night.  There's no way I'm going to get up and see what it is.

It's probably a mouse.  And those things are scary.