Toilet Paper Rolls

<p>Good morning, Five Minute Families. These past few weeks have definitely been different for our family. We know that God is in control, and He has a plan for us. Yet, I struggled a lot this week to think of an idea or topic for the Five Minute Family. And, then, I saw an empty toilet paper roll. </p><p>Toilet paper rolls are like family arguments… To not quote a popular but rude phrase… they happen. A Mirror UK survey showed that “of those who admitted to leaving an empty toilet paper roll in place, while 43 per cent 'forget', 23 per cent simply can't be bothered while 15 per cent don't even know where the toilet rolls are kept.”</p><p>Many of our family arguments resemble those toilet paper roll stats… sometimes we just forget, sometimes we don’t want to be bothered, and sometimes we are not properly equipped to handle a situation. In fact, 2019 statistics show that 70–80% of US adults consider their families to be dysfunctional in some way, which pretty much means we are all dysfunctional, so let’s figure out better ways to relate to one another. </p><p>Here are some lessons we can learn as a family from an empty toilet paper roll:</p><p>1. Work on instilling the idea - kindly - in each member of the family that “If you see something that needs to be done, do it right then.” We cannot assume that someone else will have more time than we have. </p><p>2. Someone else may truly be that unobservant. Common sense isn’t actually all that common. No, not because people are stupid, but because there are many skills and socially acceptable and expectable behaviors that are no longer being taught and thus are no longer common. </p><p>3. What you see as trash, others see as potential. Now, Jim composts, so he still sees the toilet paper roll as not something to be gotten rid of; he uses it for a good purpose. If there is a teacher in your family, he or she may need the rolls for crafts at school. You get the idea.</p><p>4. Make a plan (or formally verbalize a plan) for sharing the tasks that need to be done around the