Saturday Song: Paul McCartney, "Teddy Boy"

One sad reality about our age is single parent families. Usually it's women who must bear the load of responsibility their husbands or boyfriends leave them. I haven't the time to look it up but studies have been done to determine the effect on children of one-parent families. They show that children do much better scholastically and economically when raised with both a mom and a dad.

Paul McCartney recorded a song on his first solo album about a boy and his mother trying to make a go of life after losing  a father and husband.

Listen to the song here.

I'm glad that the Bible has comfort for those who lack a dad in their lives and for women who lack husbands. Psalms 68:5 (KJV) is one reassuring verse. "A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation."

Our Lord also provided for widows in the law which he gave to Israel. Deuteronomy 24:19 (KJV) instructed that some grain be left behind at the harvest. "When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands."

This act of charity also applied to other crops beside grain. Deuteronomy 24:20 (KJV) instructs, "When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow."

Widows also had protections built into the law. Look at what Exodus 22:22 (KJV) says. "Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child."

Even in the New Testament, believers were instructed to help less-fortunate folks. James 1:27 (KJV) says, "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

Please feel free to comment on this song and what I wrote.

On Monday, I'll post about why Christians must stay faithful until they die or Christ returns. Some denominations teach that we're always saved so why strive to stay righteous? I'll answer that on Monday.