I found this story today and I like it I think that I will use it tonight at Youth Fellowship.

A parable is told of a farmer who owned an old mule. The mule fell into the farmer's well. The farmer came running when he heard the mule braying. After carefully assessing the situation, the farmer sympathized with the mule, but decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth the trouble of saving. Instead, he called his neighbours together and told them what had happened. He enlisted them to help haul dirt to bury the old mule in the well and put him out of his misery. Initially, the old mule was hysterical. (Wouldn't you be, with dirt being flung on you?) But as the farmer and his neighbours shovelled, and the dirt fell into the well, the mule had a thought. It suddenly dawned on him that every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back, he should shake it off and step up. And that's what he did, shovel load after shovel load. "Shake it off and step up ... shake it off and step up ... shake it off and step up!" he repeated to encourage himself. No matter how painful or distressing the situation seemed, the old mule fought panic and just kept on shaking it off and stepping up. It wasn't long before the old mule, battered and exhausted, stepped triumphantly over the wall of that well! What seemed to bury him actually blessed him--all because of the way he handled his adversity.