The Brownies called. . .and I answered.

I'm blaming the Brady Bunch.

You know.

They had six kids, they all got along and worked things out.

Great show.

But they had Alice.

My life would be great, too, if I had an Alice.

Today was half day of school. Nice to have the kids home. I look forward to it. Usually they aren't home at 3:00 when Brady Bunch is on. Except for Wednesday. And they really get excited about the treat of watching TV. Big deal around here. Big deal.

Today they didn't get to watch it. None of them. It was terribly quiet at 3:00.

You see, about 2:50 they started fighting over the couch. Yes. I know, it makes no sense. But apparently my three older boys all thought they should get to stretch out on it. Two of them figured out how to share, but when the third plopped down, it got ugly.

It went downhill from there.

It wouldn't have been right to let them watch after that knock down drag out. So I didn't. I spent the rest of the day regretting my decision.

But in the spirit of June Cleaver - who didn't need television to control her kids - I made brownies.

We'd all be happy, I thought.

Me included.

"For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that lives in me. So I discover this principle: when I want to do good, evil is with me. For in my inner self I joyfully agree with God's law. But I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. What a wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh, to the law of sin." Romans 7:19-25

So therefore with my flesh, I am a slave to the brownies.

OH for the glory of heaven. When my body (flesh) will be redeemed so that with my spirit the struggle with the flesh is forever ended.

That's the hope we have in Christ.

And don't you think there will be brownies in heaven?

Without the guilt!