This dear family need your prayers right now and in the following days and weeks ahead.  Their youngest daughter Maria who was just five years old was killed so tragically yesterday evening. She was hit by a car in the driveway of the family home. The couples teenage son was driving the car and didn't see Maria - tragically Maria died in hospital.  This is absolutely devastating for her family and for their son who was driving the vehicle that hit Maria.  He has to live with this for the rest of his life and words can't be expressed what this dear family are going through right now.

Please pray for God's grace, peace and love to be poured on this family even more abundantly through this very very difficult and tragic time.

There is a special page "In Memory of Maria" that has been set up for those who wish to share their condolences - here

I read about the above on Eric's Blog. I just wanted to add some more thought to this though. How many of us so in our "every day lives"  often go through a time where we hit some kind of trial, tribulation, rough times and what do we often do - we tend to become stressed and/or go into "panic mode" !!! What we should be doing is stop exactly where we are, drop down onto our knees and and talk to our Father who is the only one who can help us through what we are going through. Ok, obviously if we are in the middle of an important business meeting or similar situation then yes, it would be a little bit difficult to suddenly drop down on our knees and pray as our colleagues/peers may think "we have suddenly lost the plot"! in this kind of situation we can quietly take a moment and pray or take 2 mins out and go somewhere quiet (if possible) whereby we can do the above.

I know for myself personally that I have been going through a bit of "rough" time at the moment and I have found it difficult not reaching out to the Lord but hearing His voice through this "difficult patch" - and basically Eric's post struck a strong chord with me. I am thinking yeah, this is something that I personally should be doing and I am sure that I am not the only person thinking along these lines either.

God knows our hearts and he knows every single thing that we are going through, after all He is the one who formed us and therefore He knows us inside out. It doesn't take 2 minutes out of an even hectic schedule to literally stop what we are doing, drop down onto our knees and call out to Abba Father and also allow him to talk to us. He is the only one who can turn situations around and restore the peace and joy back into our lives.

Eric, thank you for posting this