Anna M. Aquino

Let’s face it, we’ve all been in hard situations before when we wondered what God was thinking. We had the entire scene worked out in out heads prior to the event and when it doesn’t happen quite like you think you should how do you react? I remember I had a turndown probably four months ago that really upset me. I’ve been turned down so many times before rarely do they get to me, but this one in particular did. I sat out on the back porch bawling. When the tears subsided, and the questions faded away I kept hearing God tell me, “Anna you don’t see the entire picture.” As a result of that turn down, God steered me to write a couple of books that I would have never usually thought of writing. As a result I was moved into a place of destiny. Many of you have heard be quote Corrie Ten Boom on numerous occasions, but I’ve always loved her ministry on this earth. She talks about your life being a tapestry and from the underside we cannot see how things will ever come together, but God looks...

Almost ten years ago when Dan and I found out that we were expecting our first child, I wish I could tell you thoughts of motherly pride welled in my soul and I sang to a musical sound track in my mind, but that wasn’t the case. We’d been unemployed living with my parents until we knew for sure where God wanted us to move. We’d been married just six months and weren’t even sure if we had insurance. Singing a motherly musical was far from our minds. We were scared. When we were sure we were to move to FL I always joke about me puking in the car all the way here. I also remember joking that we’d have to find a giant piece of Tupperware for this kid to sleep in because we had very little in the way of finances. We saw God provide for the situation time and time again. Today I tell my oldest daughter often, that while she didn’t arrive in a time that we thought we needed her, God knew we did. She was on time in His timing, and I often say that she made me grow up. God knew what He was doin...

As I mentioned in the last blog, my family and I spent a few days in the Tallahassee area last week. We got to visit Wakulla State Park which is a beautiful preserve. It once was the film location for two Tarzan movies and “Creature from the Black Lagoon.” We saw manatees, alligators (which I’ve learned to be okay with as long as I’m in a boat and their not), various birds, and fish on our boat tour. As we listened to our tour guide we came across this tree. I got a good picture of it, and that’s the one that is above. I thought it was an interesting shot. This tree looks like it’s going to fall down in the water at any moment. If you could imagine it as a person, it’s almost as if it’s standing on one leg. As I began to reflect upon that tree I saw how so often we’ve all gone through out lives like that tree. We’ve been weathered, felt as if we’ve been beaten down, and feel as if we’re barely standing. Life can be like that sometimes. We have to allow ourselves to have times when God ...

Florescent Green is Everywhere! This weekend I was blessed to have some much needed and rare extended family time. My mom who lives in Ohio flew down and took my family to visit Tallahassee. My aunt who lives in Saudi Arabia flew to Tally to visit my cousin who lives there and recently had a new blessed addition to her family. It was a very nice weekend visit. My aunt had rented a beautiful house that is nestled out in the woods of North Florida. It was one of those octagon homes where it was obvious the house was designed to show off its surroundings. It was decorated very tastefully by its owner, except for one of the bathrooms. I am not sure what the owner was thinking. They chose to paint this one bathroom florescent green. But it was not just florescent green walls but the ceiling was even this same color. The color was so overwhelming that if you stayed in the bathroom too long the white tub began appearing to be green. The color was so overpowering I began seeing this green colo...

Mark 5:25-34 (The Message) 25-29A woman who had suffered a condition of hemorrhaging for twelve years—a long succession of physicians had treated her, and treated her badly, taking all her money and leaving her worse off than before—had heard about Jesus. She slipped in from behind and touched his robe. She was thinking to herself, "If I can put a finger on his robe, I can get well." The moment she did it, the flow of blood dried up. She could feel the change and knew her plague was over and done with. 30At the same moment, Jesus felt energy discharging from him. He turned around to the crowd and asked, "Who touched my robe?" 31His disciples said, "What are you talking about? With this crowd pushing and jostling you, you're asking, 'Who touched me?' Dozens have touched you!" 32-33But he went on asking, looking around to see who had done it. The woman, knowing what had happened, knowing she was the one, stepped up in fear and trembling, knelt b...

This afternoon when I was putting my youngest daughter down for her nap, I had another God parenting moment. Her clothes are something we battle about quite a bit. I go in there and organize them. Then she looks for something to wear and those clothes end up in piles all over her room. It’s a constant teaching cycle that I am always finding myself working with her in. This afternoon I went to go pray with her to take a nap and those clothes were in a pile beside the bed. She’d taken one of her baskets and scattered the clothes. Frustration began to set in. “Young lady,” I found myself saying, “Your grandmother is flying down this week. We cannot have clothes everywhere. You are going to have to do something about these clothes.” “But mommy,” she looked up to me and batted her eyelashes, “It’s okay we can just keep the door shut.” Her reaction surprised me. But as I dealt with her I began to realize that’s how we often respond to messes or sin in our lives. We think we can just shut the...

I have two kids ages 9 and 4. My oldest goes to school and my youngest is still being home schooled for pre-K. We walk most days to pick up my oldest from school, and most days that moment when my youngest is searching the crowd for my oldest to come through the gate is one of the most exciting moments of her day. She waits anticipating the moment that she sees her older sister. She can’t wait to tell her about her day. On Tuesday I saw my oldest from a distance make her way from the gate. However my youngest did not. “There she is!” I thought out loud. “But mommy I can’t see her!” My youngest questioned. “She’s on her way.” I said “But I don’t see her!” My youngest started to whine. “Trust me, I can see her.” “But mommy I can’t see her!” My youngest was starting to get sad. Patience rarely comes easily for a 4 year old. “You’re going to have to trust me.” I finally replied. Finally my oldest came toward us, and as hugs were exchanged I realized that I’d just experienced another God pa...

Last week I found myself slipping back into some old mindsets in my thinking. As I thought about how I taught last week about people in the body suffering from prophetic dyslexia I realized that also many including myself at times have fallen in to the trap of prophetic amnesia. It becomes so severe at times it’s almost as if we’ve developed prophetic Alzheimer’s disease in the spirit realm or in our thought life. What do I mean by that? Well many of us have received prophetic word after prophetic word regarding certain matters in our lives. Maybe you don’t hear a prophetic word through someone else about something, but maybe God has spoken to you on the matter, or maybe you can open up the Bible and read scripture after scripture about a particular instance you’re facing. Hearing from God is exciting! But then how do you react when you don’t see the circumstances change overnight? What if the circumstance is still there for days, weeks, or even years? How then do you react? ...