Opinion

We are in the season of Advent— the season when we remember the coming of Christ. In this column for the month of December, we will be reflecting on different aspects of Mary who played a prominent role in the Christmas Story.

Dear Neil: A friend has sage plants in her native plant landscape in Wichita Falls. Big sections of several of them are dying out – have been for some time. They have been watered fairly well, both from rain and irrigation. What might cause them to be dying in parts?

As time runs out next week on the fourth special session, Gov. Greg Abbott said he will continue to fight for school choice, despite the Texas House once again decisively rejecting it when 21 Republicans largely from rural districts joined Democrats in stripping it from a $7.6 billion education bill. The Austin American-Statesman reported it is unclear what Abbott’s next move will be.

To my Fellow Texans in the Hill Country, West Texas and South Texas: Serving the past five terms as your Representative in the Texas House has been a high honor. During this time, I have logged more than 127,000 driving miles representing a district nearly the size of the State of West Virginia. I’ve taken more than 10,000 votes on the House floor, personally authored 75 bills that passed into law—many directly benefitting our region of Texas, small towns, agriculture, small business and our rural economy— and co-authored or sponsored more than 100 other bills that passed into law.

Christmas is a season of travel. Many of us pack up the family vehicle and drive across the country to visit relatives. Others use the holiday to find the sun and reenergize on vacation. Those of us who stay put may still have our lives disrupted by an invasion of guests or relatives.

We spent the Holidays with our family hanging out together and fishing. I had a great time! That trip reminds me of a fishing trip I went on years ago. Standing on a riverbank where the water was shallow and kinda muddy where we saw other fishermen nearby but they were not catching much. Our guide, a young man who brought us to this spot, had led us to believe that we could catch big fish here. He got out the bait (it didn’t look too attractive to me) and told us to put our lines in the shallow water. There we stood, the only ones on our lines in shallow water, using some weird bait, hoping to catch a lot of big fish. It sure did take a lot of faith. That reminds me of something in the Bible. Trusting God and His Word (The Bible) takes faith and so does living the Christian life (Luke 7:50, 2Corinthians 5:7, Galatians 2:20 and Ephesians 2:8,9 one of my favorites). Our fishing trip was a great success just as our guide promised. The Bible promises we will not be disappointed if we put our faith in God, His word (The Bible) and what Jesus Christ did on the cross for us. He shed His innocent blood that our sins could be forgiven, (John 3:16, Romans 5:1-11). Faith is mentioned 299 times in the New Testament.

GARDENER’S MAILBAG Dear Neil: I have a bed of red spider lilies that are currently full of leaves. Would it be ok to divide them now? If not, when is the best time? They are growing actively now through early spring.

GUEST COLUMNIST Yes, it’s that glorious season that so many pumpkin-spice addicts claim to be their favorite. I must admit that, I, too, succumb each year to the autumnal charms of fall, except for my seemingly neverending battle with leaves, or, as I like to call them – tree dandruff.

he Texas House on Friday defeated a proposed voucher plan, also leaving in doubt a comprehensive public school funding plan that became tied to it, The Dallas Morning News reported. A coalition of rural Republicans and Democrats joined together to take education savings accounts out of the bill by an 84-63 margin.