Being blessed with a healthy family is no small thing—because the benefits are far-reaching. When you’ve been raised in a strong family, it’s easy to overlook the advantages you’ve enjoyed. But fostering or adopting a child from a troubled family often brings them into focus.
This Christmas season, as you think about selecting the right gifts for people you love, consider the amazing gift a good family is.
Family support is important for a wide array of reasons. On the most basic level, a good family benefits a person’s physical, emotion, and mental health. It offers human beings what they can’t find anywhere else.
Families Improve Overall Well-Being
Staying close to your family might actually benefit your health. A Harvard study looked at people’s relationships, including those with family, and discovered that the individuals who valued family and friends and developed bonds and connections experienced better health throughout their lives. Staying isolated can increase a person’s chances of declining health in middle-age and later years.
Families Provide Personal Stress Relief
Family ties have been shown to provide stress relief by boosting self-esteem and reducing anxiety, especially for young people who have been exposed to violence. This strong bond can act as a protective shield and offers a sense of belonging in troubling times. Studies further illustrate that those people with strong family ties are able to develop mechanisms to help them better cope with the stresses that life throws their way.
Family Meals Contribute to Healthy Diets
The benefits of eating as a family are plenty, and one of those benefits is improved diets for family members. Across all ages, families who eat meals together have healthier diets that include eating breakfast, ample fruits and vegetables, and fewer processed foods. These healthy food choices create a foundation that lasts up to five years later for teens.
Early Family Bonds Help Regulate Personal Emotions
Children who experience healthy family relationships at a young age show more control and regulation of their emotions when they’re older, reports Sage Journals. People who have more control regulating their emotions are self-aware and able to deal with feelings of any kind in appropriate and healthy ways.
Family Closeness Helps People Live Longer
In a long-term study, researchers found adults with no close relationships to family members other than a spouse were about twice as likely to die as adults with close family relationships. Results from the study also showed that many strong family ties were more beneficial than a few strong family relationships, and family bonds lengthened life more than friendship bonds. It seems there’s something specifically special about family members that makes people feel supported and happy in a way no other person can.
Family Is a Powerful Gift!
This Christmas season, give thanks for the privilege of providing a healthy family for a foster or adoptive child. You’ll probably never fully realize the transformative difference you are making!
And, as you thank God for the opportunity to share the gift of family with a child, I know you’ll also be thanking God for blessing you with this child!
“I didn’t give you the gift of life, but life gave me the gift of you”
