Anna M. Aquino

Is the Real You In Hiding? I have often found myself talking about how when I reached a certain age I had a shifting in the way I viewed others and myself. I had always been the type of person that never wanted to upset people. I was a constant “peacemaker” that was trying to keep the waters smooth at the detriment of myself at times. I remember one silly instance when I did not want to confess that I hated donuts. I mean really that’s a food that is revered in the junk food culture there must be something wrong with me I thought so I’ll keep telling myself that I like them. It did not work. I still hate donuts. Finally, one day I stopped trying to hide who I was. It had gotten old, and all I felt was cheated out of being me. The experience was very freeing to me. Being empowered to be who you are in Christ is a gift. Psalm 139:13 (Message) Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb. I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking! Body and soul,...

This is the week that we always talk about being thankful. We should talk about having an attitude of Thanksgiving, but our attitude of being grateful in our lives doesn’t need to always just be in November every year. WE should always have an attitude of thanksgiving. I won’t keep you long this morning, many of you if you live in the US are going to be traveling today, baking pies and visiting family in preparation of the Thanksgiving holiday. I wanted though to encourage you all to make a list whether it is mental or physical. Write down all the things for which you’re thankful. Sometimes it can be easy to focus in life on the few things that annoy you, but when you begin to list off all the things you can see in your life, you realize you have been blessed. Keep an attitude of thanksgiving. Let it not just be empty words that you recite because it’s that time of the year, but let it bubble up on the inside of you. You are blessed. 1 Chronicles 16:34 Give thanks to the LORD, for he i...

Many of you have heard the story about how I starting writing. I’d been 16 and I watched the movie Forrest Gump. I saw those scenes with him in Vietnam and I couldn’t shake them. I wanted to tell my dad’s story about his tour. Little by little I began to realize that it was my God given destiny to tell stories. I didn’t really start writing until six years later. In the ten years since I started trying to get published I’d write a book, and send it out only to be turned down over and over again. God has taught me a lot in these years. While patience is something that I constantly have to work on, I’ve realized what the phrase, “The ark wasn’t built overnight” really means. The words patience and perseverance have become words tattooed in the fabric of my spirit. Back in the spring of last year I had a vision. This vision had a lot of parts to it that I’m not going to publicly share but at the end, I was led to walk through two doors back to back. I have just stepped through the second ...

On Monday I was setting down with Dan watching Sid Roth’s show “It’s Supernatural.” I confess I love that show, and suddenly I felt the spirit of God ask me a question. “Why do you want to go forward in your destiny so much?” My first response to this question was to get a little annoyed. I mean the Holy Spirit has asked me that question at various times throughout my walk and I thought immediately, “Haven’t we been through checking my motives several times before? How am I off?” “Why do you want to go forward?” I felt I heard it again. “Ok, fine. God I want to go forward because I just want to fulfill what you’ve called me to do.” Easy answer. . . However what the Lord began to download to me will change the way I view things forever. I will not be able to give you the word for word conversation, but I do feel led to download the just of what the Lord began to show me. Our motivation to move forward cannot include our own comfort. It can’t be all about us. What the Lor...

Dan and I have been married for over 10 years now, and in all the years we’ve never really decorated for Christmas. We had a small couple foot tree that we bought our first year in FL but it was hardly what one would call a tree, but resembled more of the Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree. For various reasons that I won’t go into publicly we just never really got into the habit of decorating. But this year is different. I inherited my grandmother’s tree and many of her Christmas decorations and this year we decided we were going to decorate. Many of these items are very sentimental to me because the ornaments are like bits of my childhood. I can remember my grandmother painting several of them. We’d agreed that we were going to take the time Saturday to decorate. I’m not a person that likes to set around waiting for things. In fact, I get a little claustrophobic. I sometimes feel like a Mexican jumping bean in a two inch by inch hole. I want to do what has to be done, and I hate waiting o...

There are days I just want to be normal! There are days that I look at my life and the accomplishments of those around me and think, “Why can’t I just be normal maybe be just the type of person that would blend into the world around me?” Why didn’t I do x, y and z with my life instead of what I chose? I mean x, y and z isn’t a normal ambition for those people, but why would it have been for me? I remember in Sunday School class in my tween years. I would usually know the answer to the teacher’s question and wanted not only to answer the question but also to then get in a discussion as to the Biblical foundation of it. I can remember constantly holding myself back from speaking because I didn’t want to be “that girl” in the class. I just wanted to be normal. While I still have these moments, somewhere in past I realized something very important. God created me for a plan and purpose and I am who I am because God created me to be like that. Psalm 139:13 For you created my inmost being; y...

If you have read my blogs and/or have known me for any length of time, you have probably heard this story. Somehow it never gets old to me, though you cannot live spiritually off the things you did in the past, always have my own way of remembrance of this day in our lives. Ten years ago, we choose to step out in faith even when it seemed crazy. Ten years ago, we choose to leave everything known and familiar to step out on the water. In the spring of 2000, we had been living in Pittsburgh PA and God spoke to me that we were going to move to Central FL and Dan was going to work for one particular company. However, that company was not hiring. So we moved briefly back to Ohio to stay with my parents that summer until we figured out what we were doing. We we had only been married a few months. We began looking and praying about jobs all over the countries. Options would begin to materialize at the last moment only for a door to shut. We were frustrated and did not know what to do. Days me...

When I was a kid in Ohio, Cedar Point in Sandusky was the place to go. This amusement park nestled beside Lake Erie is world renown for its rides. When I was in school, we probably traveled there once to twice a summer. There was one ride that I do not know if it’s even still there called the “Corkscrew”. Complete with several upside down twists and turns it made good on it’s name. One year I was up there with a bunch of friends and someone had told me that if one spit at the height of the upside down loop then it was supposed to hit you when you hit the bottom. I don’t know what I was thinking. Strangely I justified trying this in my mind. Therefore, when me and a bunch of friends boarded the ride that day, I had a plan. I tried it. However, nothing happened to my knowledge. When my friends and I gathered after the ride one friend of mine who’d been setting directly behind me says, “It must be starting to rain. I felt a drop while we were on the ride.” I looked up to the clear blue sk...