5 Benefits of Sharing a Meal with your Family

What is your favorite time of the day?

For me, it’s dinnertime. I enjoy gathering my family around the table to enjoy a good meal. We chat, eat, laugh, and many times have important discussions about life.

There are many benefits of sharing a meal with your family, but these five stick out in my mind:

• A time to reconnect. We live such busy lives. Taking the time to share a meal lowers stress and bonds the family together.
• Healthier eating. Let’s face it, a well-thought out meal is good for the health. Studies show kids eat more fruits and vegies when they eat at home.
• Overall health. Studies show sharing a meal with our kids results in less obesity, leads to less behavior issues, and helps kids achieve higher grades in school.
• Sense of community. Cooking, setting the table, and cleaning up are all things kids can participate in to help the family work together.
• A time to share God’s Word. Reading the Bible or having a family devotion after a meal teaches kids that God is the center of your lives and builds faith.

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayers.”

Acts 2:42

Table Re-do

Dining room table Before

Our dining table received a makeover this past weekend. The top of the table had tons of wear, and I wanted the table to match the chairs. So I dove into the world of chalk paint and purchased Annie Sloan Graphite and Dark Wax.

Usually you don’t have to sand the furniture before painting using Annie Sloan’s products, but the woman who sold me the dark wax suggested I sand the top of the table and only use the dark wax on the top to give it a rich, mahogany color.

Noah, my seventeen-year-old son, sanding the table

Next, I painted the base Graphite, an almost-but-not-quite-black. More like a matted dark gray. By the next morning, I noticed the table needed a second coat for that more solid-instead-of-rustic look I was going for.

After that dried completely, I put on a coat of dark wax over the graphite to darken it even more.

The following day, I added one more coat of dark wax to the table’s surface since it will get a lot of wear and tear from my big family.

Here’s the final look. The wax will take 30 days to cure, but we can enjoy the table as long as we use placemats and coasters.

Dining room table After

How often do you eat a meal with your family?