I’ll be the first to admit that I am not a morning person. My family, close friends and co-workers can vouch for me here.  Fortunately, I’ve never had to travel any distance in the morning to work or school that would require me to get up extremely early.  In fact,  until this morning I thought 5:00am was a myth.  Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve stayed up many late nights and I’ve seen the clock pass by 5:00am, but in those cases I just thought it was some fluke of nature or science.  You know, kind of a Quantum Leap or a Close Encounters type thing.  I’ve also been up at 5:00am when the girls were babies.   But again, I thought that was only caused by some postnatal hormonal collapse or something… Regardless, I never realized that I could ever get up at 5:00am and be civil much less star in my very own sitcom episode…

Here’s how the episode played out….My thirteen-year-old daughter plays violin for orchestra at school.  They won some award that gave them the honor of performing a special concert in front of the governor.   Like any normal performance they have a certain look they must achieve.. black pants and white shirt… but this time her teacher added something a bit more to the attire…. She told them to look “elegant”.  Well,  apparently elegant means curls in your hair because my daughter asked me to do the honors of curling her hair so she could sleep in them.  When all of the curlers were in we laughed a little about her curler head appearance and then she went on to bed.

This morning I made sure she got up (well, lets just say I set the alarm) at 5:00am to finish getting ready.  Just as I was about to doze back to sleep I heard this howling laugh coming from the other room.  I covered up my head and was just thankful that she hadn’t woken up anyone else .  Then the laughter came again only this time a bit longer.  Then I heard footsteps and she stood at the bedroom door and said, “Mom!  You have to see my hair!!”  I uncovered my head, squinted my eyes and turned to look…… she began singing, “Animal Crackers in my soup…” and “On the Good Ship Lollipop..”  My first reaction was to say… no, it was 5:00am, “say” is too gentle……My first reaction was to yell,  “What are you doing?!?”  And I did….. but when I did, I saw what was making her laugh…. at that very minute, I was stunned as a 5 foot 3 inch Shirley Temple stood at the bedroom door… It was a remarkable resemblance.  I know, I know… it was early in the morning but I’m telling you I know the secret to Shirley Temple’s hair.  .  Allison continued her song and I jumped (literally) out of bed to get a closer look… My daughter kept bobbing her head and singing.  I couldn’t stand it, she was hilarious and her hair was horrible!!  I began using my fingers to loosen up the curls but like those little animals that grow when exposed to water,  her hair started to expand.  It got bigger and bigger and bigger.  Again, we doubled over with laughter.  Finally after about 15 minutes of laughter, intermingled with trying to create an elegant (wasn’t happening) look, my daughter shook it all off an put her hair up in a ponytail.  We even laughed at the ponytail’s awkward appearance… looking somewhat like a second head.

As all sitcoms seem to do, our “episode” ended with a happy ending when I dropped her off at school.  As she walked into the school I thought to myself, “this is a morning I want to remember.”  My teenage daughter was incredible.  I was so proud of her….If I had been in her shoes I would have probably been sobbing  in my room and trying to figure out how to get out of going to the performance.  She didn’t though,  she remained calm,  laughed it off and used plan B; the ponytail.

What an example she set. After all, why do we worry?

Matthew 6:25-34

25“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life^[b]?

28“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.