Anna M. Aquino

I am not a person that sits and waits well.   I confess that if I’m in a situation that needs a touch from God I’m the first person to jump up and be in a place that perhaps I can ‘help kick a door open’ and ‘help God’ if need be.   People who aren’t doing anything in the kingdom and claim their waiting on God annoy me, frustrate me, and sometimes I seriously want to smack them.   Haven’t we all read the same book?   Faith without works is dead (James 2:14).   We all have a job to do, a role to play, and we can’t sit around and do nothing!   God needs us to do our part.   Except for the times He doesn’t. I wrote last week about working on not being a “Worrying-Controlling-Frustrated-Planner”.  I knew as I wrote it that I was going to be tried and tested on that word.  I’d like to tell you that I stayed on the rock of peace, but alas if I’m being honest I slipped numerous times this week.  I’ve had to fight harder and climb bac...

              Yesterday Dan and I went to a Ross store and we were waiting in a very long line to make our purchase.   I love Ross stores and will miss them when the day comes we move away from them.   However they can be very congested on the weekends and yesterday was no exception to that.   The lines were long, and sadly anytime you pack people into a store promising them a good deal they can act less than their best.   While we were in line waiting I had noticed a young boy who could have been no more than five.   He was sitting down playing around the line.   I was sure that somewhere near were his parents, and didn’t think about it until a store worker appeared to take him to find to whom he belonged.   The boy was playing with some toys near the line, and it appeared the parents/guardians had left him there.   When Dan and I finally got to a register was when the explos...

  In these blogs I have always gone out of my way to be very real with my readers.   So I have a confession to make.   In the years of my life, I have been a Worrying-Controlling-Frustrated-Planner.   I was a worrying kid.   I can remember staying up at nights and mulling over every little conversation and times I could of handled things better.   When I got a hold of the scriptures in Matthew 6 about worrying I got better in this area.   Matt 6:25-34 “ 25  “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life [ e ] ?28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flower...

  Good Morning!   I hope everyone had an awesome Resurrection weekend.   He is Risen!   He is Risen Indeed! On Friday afternoon, I wanted to do something with the family that reflected honoring the Good Friday message.   Perhaps it’s the Lutheran foundation in me, or maybe I just wanted to do something so that my family could take a moment outside of our plans to honor Jesus for the price He paid on Calvary.   Dan and I decided to have both the girls watch Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ and then take communion as a family together.   My girls are 12 and 7, and while the oldest had seen it (though she swears she hadn’t) my youngest had never.   To me that movie is not one I watch often.   It’s not a ‘for entertainment’ film, and as I watched it there were a few things I felt God spoke to me about.   The evening was a good family time filled with discussions about Jesus, and I’m glad we did it. On Saturday Morning D...

              Have you ever watched a movie or TV show full of suspense and found your entire family yelling at the screen.   Or maybe it was a book; you read it until the wee hours of the morning and wanted to literally hurl the book across the room when you finished it because you hated the ending that much.   Personally as an author I’ve argued with myself about killing various characters off.   I remember in one book knowing this character had to die but sitting at the computer crying as I wrote the scene.   I knew it had to happen for the story line to progress, even if I hated to do it.             Have you ever wondered that perhaps the angels had similar moments when Jesus was brutally nailed to the cross?   How did heaven feel when he died?   Maybe they all watched the scene from afar waiting for that moment where they coul...

              This weekend a good friend of ours’ son was having a birthday, so we decided to decorate our house for a quick makeshift surprise party.   My youngest was excited so was in one of those ‘Mom.   Mom. Mommy!   I want to help now!’ moods and I was trying to give her things she could do.   When we started to work on blowing up the balloons and tying string on them, the mass chaos was getting me aggravated.   Then my oldest daughter was trying to help and we were making what was supposed to be a fun even into drama.   I decided to give each kid a job and then we could turn this task into somewhat of an assembly line.   I was attempting to get order into the midst of this.               “Ok, you can cut the strings.”   I said to my youngest.            ...

              Good morning all of my super fabulous readers!   I want to first welcome all my new lady readers that I met at the Woman’s Conference this weekend in Toledo.   It was so good to meet you all and it was an honor to share that special time with you.   For you guys this story was already told to you, so you get to hear it again.   (Grin) I just love it when God sets up his people in divine connections.               As many of you know I flew up last weekend for a very intense few days into Ohio.   I realized as I was preparing to fly that I had never flown by myself.   It’s true.   As a kid, I always had my parents with me.   Now that I’m an adult it’s either been my husband by my side or my kids always taking a stolen moment of silence at the boarding gate to slip in an extra, “Mom, Mom, Mom, Mommy!” ...

              After living in Florida for over 13 years I have long since discovered this white girl does not do well in the Florida sun.   Growing up in Ohio I never remember having this much problems out in the sun.   Sure we wore sunscreen, but not all the time.   In Florida however I have been burnt too many times to count.   I sunscreen, never just wear a bathing suit, and I’ve decided if I stay in this state much longer I need to buy gear like the picture above.   I did swipe the picture off the internet, but don’t worry ( http://www.amazon.com/Performance-Camouflage-Aqua-Design-Multifunctional/dp/B005T8OI10 )   Here is where the gear is purchasable, so I’m not copyright infringing.             Last Friday Dan took the day off and we went to the beach.   I made sure the kids were sun screened up, but I wasn’t taking my sh...