Egg Bowl Visitors

After Thanksgiving, all the Long family got together at the lodge. We had a good time decorating for Christmas and watching the Egg Bowl. The Egg Bowl was only fun for part of the family though. So long Nutt!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving at Nana's

 

 

 

 

 

Showing us what Pop looks like without a shirt

Riding KK like a horse

Daddy's Girl

Taylor is growing into the sweetest baby. She has daddy wrapped around her finger.

 

 

 

 

Halloween 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cali-Cat

Ann Fleming got a new cat the other day. She is a cat that was dropped off at Royann's Clinic. It is amazing the torture this cat can take from Ann Fleming and just keep coming back for more. They are best pals, though. I really can see Ann Fleming following in her Mom's foot steps and becoming a Vet. She loves animals as much as her Mom.

 

 

 

 

If Heaven Has Ducks!

A hunter had a dream of finding the perfect dog. Not only of finding a dog that would work for him diving into icy cold water for a web footed bird, but one that he could call his friend. Not many hunters find this combination. Because God only makes a few of them. Anybody can have a great pet and anybody can have a great hunting dog, but when you find both in the same dog, it is a rare thing.

Kitt, my hunting lab, was run over last night. I can't even begin to explain what I feel right now. Most of my thoughts go to a future without her and the past with her, as I am trying to avoid the present. I think back to all the hunts we shared together. All the ducks she picked up for me and my hunters (When I say thousands, I literally mean thousands.). I think about the hours we spent together in a layout blind together with her laying between my legs. The hours she spent in the house at my feet asleep waiting on my next command. The hours we spent together in a truck riding together. What in the world am I gonna do without her? I think about the hunts of the future.  How many times are hunters are gonna ask me, "Hey, Where's Kit?"? I am gonna think back of her and that thing in the back of my throat is gonna form and make it hard to swallow the saliva in my mouth. Who is gonna spot the ducks coming in before they are in my sight? I am glad I let her camp out the other night with Ann Fleming and me. I am glad I took her on one more walk with me the other day. Besides my wife, I don't think I will ever find another thing as loyal as you were.

Kitt: April 14, 2004- November 17, 2011

So Kitt for your sake, I hope there are ducks in heaven or they at least have tennis balls. If they do, I know what you are doing. We will all see you again one of these days. Until then my favorite command, One More Time: SHHHHH' BACKKKKK'!!!!!!!!!! We all love you and will miss you Kitt!

Camp Out!

Ann Fleming and I decided we were gonna camp out on the screen porch last night. Royann and Taylor came out for a little while, but both were a little under the weather, so they didn't stay long. I thought we would just stay a little while until Ann Fleming fell asleep, but I think I fell asleep before she did. I was really tired from working yesterday on the lodge. Kitt and Cali also stayed with us since we don't let animals in the house anymore. So at 7:00 this morning when I woke up I had a cat on my chest, a dog between my legs, and Ann Fleming wrapped around me trying to keep warm. All in all a great first great camp out for the family.

All Gave Some! Some Gave All!

You know there are things you love about your Dad. A couple of the main reasons I love my Dad is his courage and love for his country. Yes, there are many other reasons I love my Dad, his love of God, knowledge, wisdom, and simply because he is my Dad, but his courage and love for our country stick out to me every time I look at him.

My Dad was drafted in 1969 to the Vietnam conflict at the young age of 21. One of the stories my Dad always told me was, if I ever get drafted to a war don't tell the draft office I like to hunt. When he appeared before the draft board that was one of the conversations he held with the officers in charge. He told them how much he liked to hunt. So that is what they did. They put him in the bush or jungle to hunt Vietnamese. From what I gather from him, he stayed in the bush for 9 months and spent another 9 months working in camp and searching for mines. You know when I look at the pictures below, I see a kid. A kid that gave all to his country except his life, but some of the others weren't so lucky they gave all. He won't talk a lot  to anyone about what happened or what he saw, but you can see it deep in his eyes if you bring up the subject of war.

I want to thank you Dad for what you did and the sacrifice you made for this country. I love you and will always have great respect for you not only because you are my Dad, but the courage you showed in protecting freedom and your love of this country we all live in.

I ask anyone that is reading this, find someone that is a veteran and shake their hand, give them a hug, or buy them lunch for their service on this Veteran's Day. I appreciate all you guys that served something bigger than yourself.

A Peacemaker

As I woke up this morning my thoughts were no on to the healing process among Christians and the citizens of Mississippi. The greatest thing needed now in the State is a healing process to begin. There has been lots of discord among Christians on who was right and wrong on the Amendment 26. I told everyone from the beginning that no matter how you voted I would still be a friend and a brother in Christ here at the end of the day. I am sure most know how I voted on the amendment by the latest blog post on our family blog, but lets get one thing clear I don't care how you voted.  That is between you and God. Please don't feel awkward around others if they didn't vote the way you did. Since the beginning of the church there has always been disagreements among believers. We have to understand there are bigger mountains to climb and bigger battles to fight as Christians I am sure we all agree on. Do I think there are bigger problems in the State than Amendment 26? Yes! If we could get as passionate about Christ as we have about an amendment, man think of how this State could change for the better. So I leave you with one final thing to think about today:

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God

"I am a Christian and Pro-Life, But....." So WWJD on 26?????

This is a post for friends and even people I don't know that know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. So if you are reading this and don't know Christ and he is not the Lord of your life, I pray that today you will find him and understand his love for all life. I think we need to discuss the religious or moral side of this issue because that is where most of the final attacks by Planned Parenthood have been focused. If we are true followers of Christ we need to discuss WWJD and some of the other tactics being put out there lately by Planned Parenthood.

Over the past few weeks since my last blog post most of the original tactics being used by Planned Parenthood or Ms. For Healthy Families have been tossed aside because they were proven false, but I still see some that believe those things, but they are few. If this were a horse race, this is the final leg and Planned Parenthood is pulling out all the stops to finish strong in this conservative state. What have we seen the past couple of weeks?: The release of medical misinformation about doctors accountability with this new amendment, the use of our Governor's voice without his permission to make phone calls to citizens of the state, the scare tactic of "The law is to vague", and I saved the best for last, "I am a Christian and I am Pro-Life but". Making Christians feel it is OK to vote no in this important vote.

First, I think by now everybody has seen the interview Haley Barbour gave to the news show "The Rundown". I will say I watched it many times and I was concerned about our Governor saying he didn't know how he was gonna vote and that Amendment 26 was vague. Planned Parenthood took the interview and Haley's voice and made many phone calls around the state to voters making it sound like it was directly from the Governor and that he was voting no. By the next day Barbour had already voted yes on Amendment 26 and put a stop to all the calls by Planned Parenthood, but who knows the damage done by the deception of Planned Parenthood. Some of my family even fell prey to the personal phone call from Barbour. They told me "If Barbour was voting this way then they would also". This is the first thing I want you to notice as a Christian. If the no side is on the up and up why would you have to deceive to make people believe your side. Who is the master of deception?

Second, is the medical misinformation being put out by Ms. For Healthy Families about how medical procedures (birth control, In-Vetro fertilization, etc.) and Doctors accountability (ectopic pregnancy procedures, cancer treatments during pregnancy, etc.) will be affected with this new Amendment. I will tell you going into this was one of my biggest concerns. I think I talked about it some in my earlier blog post. If you as a Christian still have concerns about these things here are my two suggested resources about the medical misinformation that is out there. First, a word from one of the most respected OB-GYN's in the state.

Now I can't say I know the hearts of some of the Doctors that have posted on either side of Amendment 26, but for Dr. Webb I do. He is one of the greatest Christian men to share info with you on every aspect of this new amendment and how it will affect the medical community. How do I know him? Dr. Webb is probably one of the most respected OB-GYN's in the state. He is in Tupelo, Ms. I don't know him directly, but I have family and friends that have close dealings with him. I will say it is the first You Tube video I have ever sat through past the first minute, but for the medical misinformation section you can go to around the 24:00 minute mark in the video if that is the only part that is important to you., but I would recommend watching the whole video. Please scan through the video and watch why he says the OB-GYN Association (which he is a member of) and Nursing Association are standing on the "No" side.  He topples every deception out there. There is that word again, deception. Why does the other side have to use it?

The other source is a link to the Ms. Center for Public Policy website. They go into great detail how the new amendment will affect medical procedures and doctors:

http://mspolicy.org/mcpp_reports/mcpp_reports_view.php?entryID=304

Third, "Why is the amendment so vague?" Why don't they just say in the amendment, " Abortion shall be illegal in Mississippi". If this is your reasoning for voting no, you are missing the forest for the trees. I think 99.9% of all Christians would agree abortion is wrong and want it outlawed in the United States. How many unborn children have died by abortion? Right at 54 million unborn children have been murdered. In all the wars combined fought by the USA only 1.4 million have died. What? Is that correct? Yes, those are the right numbers. So we agree abortion is wrong? Right? How do we stand up and do something about it? To see the forest we have to look at Roe Vs. Wade:

First we have to understand Roe V Wade was a court decision in 1973 by the Supreme Court and not a law. Decisions handed down by courts are very different than laws that are written by the Legislative branch. Court decisions can easily be overturned with a law passed by the Legislative branch or by the people in a constitutional amendment. Justice Blackmun in his decision said the court had to rule the way they did because "Personhood" had never been defined by a law on the books anywhere, but if "Personhood" was ever defined by a state or states to include the unborn and when the unborn is a person they would have to change their ruling accordingly. So we sit here today as a state defining "Personhood" in a State Constitutional Amendment by the people because the Legislative branch won't do it for us. You have to understand as a Christian, the forest is the overturning of Roe V Wade by defining a person. That is what we are voting on. If the unborn is a person and has rights. Do the proponents of the "Yes" vote want this to go to the court system? My thoughts are yes. We want it to go all the way to the Supreme Court.

Finally, "I am a Christian and Pro-Life but" excuse that has started in the last few weeks. The first time I read this excuse I thought, what better way of deception could the enemy use than to recruit some of God's own children with this excuse. Let me start this off if you are going to call me judgemental of your decision of or leaning to the"No" side, please stop reading now because the information that follows will also be difficult to understand. I mean do you scream at your Bible, "Your being Judgemental" when any writer of the Bible gave warnings to believers or better yet to your preacher on Sunday mornings who is delivering a message from God specific to you. Am I saying I am as great as the writers of the Holy Bible? No! I am not saying that. So please no "holier than thou" accusations. I am simply taking God's word and placing it out there to help you make or change your decision as a believer according to his word. Maybe it is not my words that are disgusting you, but the Holy Spirit fighting with your flesh to do the right thing. 

So we are all in agreement that the unborn is a person, right? Then let us proceed. First let's talk Jesus for a second. He died on the cross, the ultimate sacrifice, for our sins to give life to the spiritually dead and to establish a bridge to God for us. We all agree with this, right? It was a totally unselfish act by God in human form putting us first. Now if we are a Christians and we agree with earlier statements, answer this question. Which of these is right in the order of our priorities of a Christian life then?

Me                                                                                                              
God 
Family and Friends                                              

God
Me
Family and Friends

God
Family and Friends
Others

If you agree with the third, you are in agreement with the Bible. When Jesus died the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus and Jesus's concerns were never on his mind. God was the first thing on his mind by glorifying him through his death and then the sacrificing of himself for the human race's sin  were his concerns. It was never about Jesus. It was, but it wasn't. Why do I show you this?  Aren't we a living example of Christ or we are supposed to try to be? Back to the excuse, what is always the word or text character that follows "I am a Christian and Pro-Life but,". It is always the word I. As a Christian our concerns come fourth after God, Family and Friends, and Others we don't know. So if we agree that Me comes last in the order, we have to put God's priorities first and then Family, Friends, and Others. So what does God instruct us to do as his children in this situation if he is number one in our decisions and putting our concerns last. First, we are Christ's church or body here on earth. We are Jesus's voice. So we have know what the word says about abortions and standing up for the unborn:

1. Yet God tells us to: Rescue those being led away to death, hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say "But we knew nothing of this," does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done? Proverbs 24:11
2. Proverbs 31:8 Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.
3.Philippians 2:4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others

Does it sound like God was instructing us to vote "No"? It sounds like an indisputable "Yes" vote to me. In all the "No" concerns it seems to me, Me and my thoughts are coming before God's indisputable evidence of wanting us to vote "Yes". Now God does give us discernment to think things through, but at the end of all that discernment and at the heart of the matter, does our decision match up with God and his word? He is first, right?  We are his voice on earth, right? Our love and service for others are before our voice and concerns, right? Or are our concerns of earthly matters keeping us from matching up with God? If you look at the majority of the doctors that are voting yes on this amendment, they are putting God first in their decision. Because they know at the end of the day they answer to God and his ways are more important than any earthly ways. If you look at the ones that are pushing the "No", a lot of them follow it up with how it will affect them and how difficult it could, could make their lives.

Finally, I hope and pray you make the right decision based on biblical principals. Remember you are Jesus's voice on earth. If you are his follower, how would he vote in your mind, and I think you have the way you should vote. I hope that one day the unborn have the same right to protection and we will value an unborn child the same as a human outside the womb. I will leave you with two last verses and I hope your vote for the unborn will make others around the USA stand up for their protection also.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. Jeremiah 1:5

In Psalm 106 God speaks specifically against killing innocent children and babies. He says of His people: They mingled with the nations and adopted their customs. They worshipped their idols which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughter to demons. They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan and the land was desecrated by their blood.


I send you all my best wishes and love no matter how you vote,
Rocky Leflore