Each year we get Christmas cards and "family newsletters." These are opportunities for us to catch up on the family news of friends and relatives that we haven't seen in a while. This is especially true if you moved around the world as we did in the military.

Since postage costs what it does today, and the address book gets larger as time goes on, it is about impossible to keep in touch like we would like to. The Christmas and New Year newsletter is the answer to sharing and receiving all the family news of dear friends and relatives.

In the middle East, as in the United States, we all express greetings upon meeting someone. Here in the South we often say, "How are you?" The Southern ladies often hold out the "youuu" especially long. The response is often, "Doing fine, how are you?"

In the Middle East, depending on where you are, you will see when meeting someone, people slightly bowing at the waist. The man will touch his head, his mouth and his heart. In essence he is saying, "From my head, my mouth, my heart, I salute you."

But are things as rosy as we indicate?

In the Christmas and New Year newsletters we receive, we always get the glowing reports of how our friends' kids are doing. They also report that their jobs are on the fortune 500 track and they have their pictures there with everyone's best foot forward. Never a mention of any problems or struggles they have experienced over the past year.

It reminds me of the greetings we all do and the small talk. It makes you think that all their kids were born with "straight As, straight teeth, and with clothes."

In today's society, with all the influences that bombard the American family and the peer pressures our children face, life ain't always on top!! I am reminded of the umpteen trips to the orthodontist, the doctors, the teachers at school for extra help and the monthly juggle of the checkbook. I have a friend who, while in college, used to use one credit card to pay off the other.

This is where the Gospel comes in. We know from reading God's word that amid all the problems of life there is "good news" in the hope we have in Jesus Christ. The basic Gospel message that you are "loved, forgiven and are somebody in God's eyes" has transformed the world. This basic Gospel message is really what people are searching for and often don't realize it.

Imagine, "loved, forgiven and are somebody." What a novel idea. Jesus said, "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." To me this means even the daily drudgery of life. Remember, you are loved forgiven and are somebody!