Christmas Lights

 Livingston, Tx puts on a really nice light show starting right after Thanksgiving. I don't know when they turn them off yet. It is all free. You just need to drive around, or better yet, find a couple places to park and walk around. I really enjoyed my walk around town last night. And my drive and walk around Pedigo park. I have seen there is 5 acres of lights in Goodrich somewhere, but there is a charge for that. 

Bible Study on Hope

I decided this year to do a daily advent Bible Study. I have been enjoying reading a chapter a day, but wanted to do more study. I signed up for a daily email, but was disappointed in it. It has plenty of inspirational quotes but little of the Bible. It was encouraging people to choose to hope in people as well as God. I went to my dad's concordance and looked up the verses on hope which is the theme for the first week of advent. Following are the verses that spoke to me this week.

 Psalm 33:17, 18 We can't rely on the strength of things of the world. Our hope is in God.

Psalm 42:5 Even when we are sad, our hope is in God.

We can't rely on the strength of the world or things in the world. Our hope is on God. Even when we are sad we must put our hope in God.

Psalm 119:74, 130:5 Put your hope in God's word.

Psalm 130: Wait for God and He will redeem us.

Psalm 147:11 God delights in those who hope in Him.

Proverbs 23:18 There is a future in God.

Put your hope in God's word. Wait for Him and He will redeem us. He delights in those who hope in Him.

Issiah 40:31 God never grows weary and gives his strength to us.

Jer 29:11 God knows His plans for us.

Lam 3:21 God's mercies never fail.

Rom 5:4 Suffering leads to perseverance which leads to character which gives hope. Hope never disappoints us because it is based in God's love.

Rom 8:20 We were saved in hope

Rom 8:24 What we hope and wait for we do not see.

God never grows weary and understands all so He gives us his strength when we hope in Him. He knows his plans for us and his mercies will never fail. We are saved when we hope in God. We don't see what we hope for, but we wait for what we hope for -- the coming of Christ's kingdom and our adoption into his family.

Romans 15:4 Scriptures were written to give us hope

Romans 15:13 So let God's spirit fill you to overflowing with hope and joy

Eph 2:12 Christ's blood is what now gives us hope.

The Scripture was written to give us hope, but now Christ's blood is what gives us hope for eternal life with God. So let God's spirit fill you to overflowing with hope and joy.

1 Thess 1:3, 5:8 hope in Jesus, hope in salvation

1 Tim 4:10 set your hope on the living God who is the savior of all people

1 Tim 6:17 don't hope on riches, hope in God

Put all of your hope in Jesus

Titus 1:2 we hope for the coming of the Messiah as promised by the God who cannot lie.

Heb 6:19 hope anchors the soul and is given to us by God who cannot lie

Heb 10:23 hold fast to hope for God is faithful

1 John 3:3 we are now God's children but we don't know what we will become because we can't know or see everything.

We hope for the coming of the Messiah who was promised by the God who cannot lie. In that hope, we know we are God's children but we don't know what we will become because we don't know or see everything. 

Jet skiing Lake Livingston

 My newest nephew bought a jet ski this summer after he went jet skiing with some friends. He learned to safely navigate Lake Livingston, which is full of trees from when the CCC built the dam. He explored with his wife, had fun with friends, and made sure to invite all of us family members out for adventures regularly. At first, I was a bit nervous. I didn't want to fall off the jet ski. I was also afraid I would knock him off. I discovered if you can ride a cantering horse, you can stay on a jet ski. You do have to hold on tight when it launches over waves, and I bet if he went faster than 20mph ((it can go 60) you'd feel like you were in a horse race. I enjoy riding with him. I would not want to drive it myself. You have to stay very alert and don't have time to watch the scenery or the birds. I am looking forward to late spring when the lake is warm enough to go out again. A lot of photos wind up crooked, we are on a moving object. My little camera does pretty good. I do very little editing so the photos are mostly as taken.

Lockhart State Park

 Day 5 Trip to Lockhart and Lockhart

We drove a different route out of Lost Maples, We headed toward Henry and Kerville. The drive criss crossing the Guadalupe river was beautiful. Fortunately it wasn't heavily trafficked and I could drive at 45 mph and enjoy the views and the curvy roads. If you do this trip... make sure you map a route and write it down. You wont have any cell coverage within an Hour of Lost Maples. We did get cell coverage, spotty in Henry and good in Kerville. This was a beautiful drive and hiking in Lost Maples was an amazing experience. I really recommend it, but make reservations months ahead. Even the day use area was booked way ahead of time. 

Lockhart State Park was a little disappointing after Buescher, Bastrop, and Lost Maples. It is a small park that is mostly a 9 hole golf course and a big woody hill with views of the valley. The recreation hall is a lovely rock building on the top of the hill with a pavilion that would overlook the valley in the winter when the leaves were off the trees. The trails from the top were steep. I was not interested in "hilltop, ascending, or descending" after my hike yesterday so we stuck to the creek-side trail. The creek is beautiful with several rock dams that form small waterfalls and fishing holes. The golf course gives a good view of the sunset. Only 5 camp sites were open so the campground was quiet, but people camping were having fun. The main rv loop was closed for repairs to the electrical system. Fortunately we were able to fit in one of the pull through sites in the other loop. The only site in the pull through loop big enough for a large rv is site 11. That one also has a nice place to put your chairs to watch the creek. We were in a site further down. We could see the creek through the trees and the site next to us had a trail that went down to the creek. Peanut fell into the creek, Tippy and Roudy were more careful. The dogs and I also waded around the waterfall by the road. Tippy and Roudy enjoyed it. Peanut thought we were not so smart for hanging out in the water. We went to a BBQ place for lunch that was recommended on YouTube. It was very good. I had loaded fries. The fries started out really good, I wish some had been plain. Then they loaded them with ranch dressing, cheese, BBQ sauce and I chose chopped beef. It was better than any of the chopped beef BBQ I have had since Alabama when I was in college. I liked the sauce. I wonder if they sell it, I forgot to ask. For dinner mom made "angels on horseback" from her girl scout days. It was a hot dog wrapped with bacon. It was supposed to be cooked over a fire,, but there is a burn ban so we cooked them over charcoal. It was very good, (but not a good as the BBQ).