I really don't feel comfortable unless I can easily skid my rear wheel and lift up my rear wheel if I clamp down on the front brake. My old merlin road bike with throw me off if I'm not careful.

Are your wheels locking? Will they lock if you hold down the levers and try and push the bike? If you got the bike from an LBS I'd bring it back if you don't know how to adjust it yourself or have someone you know to help because stopping is too important to fiddle with I have ridden a few bikes with some really poorly adjusted brakes. Actually when I picked up one my bike new disc brake bikes they wouldnt' even stop the wheels when I walked the bike. Sometimes they just miss something or don't tighten things up right when putting these things together.