Can eating meals with your family improve your health and well-being? Maybe so, according to a University of Minnesota study reported in the August 2004 issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

The "Project EAT" (Eating Among Teens) survey from 1998-1999 found that 26.8 percent of middle and high school students reported eating at least seven meals with their families in the previous week, while 33.1 percent reported never eating with their families or eating with them only once or twice per week.

According to the study, the less often teens eat with their families, the more likely they are to experience "tobacco, alcohol and marijuana use; low grade-point average; depressive symptoms; and suicide involvement." The study's authors wrote: "We found family mealtimes to be a protective factor in the lives of adolescents for nearly all of these variables, particularly among adolescent girls" (Aug. 20, 2004).

Many young people have broken families or relationships that no doubt contribute to these findings. But for those who seek God and want to be part of His family, God promises comfort and belonging. God is called "a father to the fatherless" who "sets the lonely in families" (Psalm 68:5-6, NIV). Christians are told in James 1:27 that pure religion is "to visit orphans and widows in their trouble"—in other words, to remember and care for those in unfortunate family situations.