Hooray for Louse Day!

There was a day in my childhood that I looked forward to going to school. When i was in elementary school, I actually hated to go to school. I don't know if it was because I wasn't as good as the other kids at reading or because I loved being at home, but whatever the reason, I would do anything to stay home from school. However, there was one day of the year that I looked forward to with great anticipation. I would jump out of bed with a smile on my face, shove 2 brown sugar cinnamon toasterstrudels down my throat, run to the bus stop, and wait not-so-patiently for bus number 46 to take me to McEachron Elementary.

So what could possibly get 8-year-old Charlie so excited to go to school? It wasn't the annual Halloween parade where all the students would parade throughout the school showing off their costume (I'm pretty sure I was a vampire 3 out of my 5 years there). Nor was it the school carnival, talent show, pancake feed, or a field trip to the Topeka History Museum. It was...Lice Check Day.

There are three things I love in this world unconditionally: Jesus, Mom (this includes her homemade chocolate chip cookies...and the rest of my family), and Lice day. Let me take you through the Lice-checking process. First of all, Lice (or the singular version, louse) are small wingless insects that are scavengers of human skin and other debris found on the body. There are three different types of lice that live on humans, and the one they check for in school is head lice. So back to the process of checking lice at school. The school nurse would dismiss each class one at a time, and they would line up right outside her office for his or her turn to be checked. I can remember sitting in my classroom watching students walk down the hall to the nurse's office and being very jealous and anxious for my turn. Finally, it would be my class's turn, and I, of course, would run to the front of the line to lead my classmates.

As I stepped in the nurse's room, I would sit down on a stool and wait for the magic to begin. With gloves on her hands, the nurse would grab something that looked like a baton a conductor would use to lead a symphony. And I can almost swear that I heard beautiful music playing as she gently began to orchestrate with her baton a search through my scalp looking for any disgusting louse (remember...this is singular for lice). It was a moment of ecstasy that was over as soon as it began, as I hear her say, "He's clean. Next." I'm proud to say that during my entire elementary career, those were the only words I ever heard on Lice Day, but i think i secretly wanted her to say, "Uh oh. We got a code red." Then for the next hour she would have to just go through my scalp with her baton looking for lice...that would feel so good. But that isn't probably how it would go, so I'm grateful I was lice-free.

Looking back on Lice Day, I remember looking forward for something that wasn't going to last long. So here is the moral of the story: We all need to build time machines so we can go back into time once a week and do Lice Day.

Oh, and I here is a great sermon by Kyle Idleman on sexual temptaion...listen to it!