Shake Off and Step Up!

There’s an old parable about a farmer who had a donkey who fell into a deep pit. Figuring the animal was either dead or badly injured, and knowing there was no way he could get the donkey out of the narrow hole, the farmer regretfully decided that he would fill in the hole in order to prevent any further injuries to his animals. Meanwhile, the dazed, yet uninjured donkey was trying to figure out what had just happened. He stood up at the bottom of the hole, only to feel a pile of dirt land squarely on his back. Panicked, he realized he was about to be buried alive! Naturally, the donkey shook off the dirt. Almost immediately, another pile of dirt landed on his back. Again, he shook it off. After a few more shovels, the donkey realized that he had shaken off enough dirt to form a pile below his feet, so he stepped up onto that pile. To make a long story short, the resilient donkey spends the whole night shaking off the dirt, and stepping up onto it, until the pile is finally large enough that he is able to escape from the pit.

The moral? When we find ourselves in a pit, we can do one of two things. One option is to become discouraged and give up, telling ourselves the hole is just too deep. Whether we purposely give up, or simply choose to do nothing, we will soon be completely buried. The other option is to shake off our past failures, and step up to the challenge at hand. The choice is yours!

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