Years ago, Jan and I had several teen boys living in our home. Based on the state of their bathroom, I could tell they needed to learn an important life lesson. So I said, “From now on, you need to clean your own toilet and bathroom. Otherwise, you’ll lose it!”

Unfortunately, the mess got even worse. So one day I just took the entire toilet out! Pretty soon, the smell was too much, even for them. So they came to me and pleaded, “What can we do to get our toilet back?”

In return for a new toilet, the boys cleaned all the bathrooms in the house for a few months. It taught them how to take care of things. But more importantly, they learned that when you break a rule, you pay the consequence.

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