84 Bible Verses about Child Rearing

Proverbs 22:6 ESV / 115 helpful votes

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Ephesians 6:4 ESV / 68 helpful votes

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Psalm 127:3 ESV / 56 helpful votes

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.

Proverbs 13:24 ESV / 52 helpful votes

Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.

Proverbs 29:15 ESV / 51 helpful votes

The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.

Colossians 3:21 ESV / 45 helpful votes

Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 ESV / 44 helpful votes

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Proverbs 29:17 ESV / 42 helpful votes

Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart.

Proverbs 23:13-14 ESV / 40 helpful votes

Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol.

Proverbs 22:15 ESV / 33 helpful votes

Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

Psalm 127:3-5 ESV / 33 helpful votes

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

Colossians 3:20 ESV / 27 helpful votes

Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

Exodus 21:17 ESV / 23 helpful votes

“Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.

James 1:19-20 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

Matthew 15:4 ESV / 18 helpful votes

For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’

Hebrews 12:5-11 ESV / 17 helpful votes

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? ...

Titus 2:6 ESV / 15 helpful votes

Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.

Proverbs 13:22 ESV / 15 helpful votes

A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous.

Proverbs 23:13 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.

Proverbs 21:20 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it.

Deuteronomy 6:7 ESV / 12 helpful votes

You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

1 John 2:1-29 ESV / 10 helpful votes

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: ...

Proverbs 19:18 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death.

Hebrews 12:11 ESV / 9 helpful votes

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Ezekiel 16:20-21 ESV / 9 helpful votes

And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them?

Deuteronomy 4:9 ESV / 8 helpful votes

“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children—

Exodus 20:12 ESV / 8 helpful votes

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Genesis 18:19 ESV / 8 helpful votes

For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 7 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Luke 16:11 ESV / 7 helpful votes

If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?

Luke 14:28 ESV / 7 helpful votes

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?

Isaiah 54:13 ESV / 7 helpful votes

All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.

Proverbs 20:11 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Even a child makes himself known by his acts, by whether his conduct is pure and upright.

3 John 1:4 ESV / 6 helpful votes

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV / 6 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

1 Timothy 5:8 ESV / 6 helpful votes

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

1 Timothy 3:4-5 ESV / 6 helpful votes

He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?

1 Thessalonians 2:6-12 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. ...

Ruth 1:1-22 ESV / 6 helpful votes

In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. ...

2 Thessalonians 1:1-12 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— ...

Ephesians 6:1-4 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Proverbs 15:5 ESV / 5 helpful votes

A fool despises his father's instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is prudent.

1 Samuel 2:26 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and also with man.

Deuteronomy 11:19 ESV / 5 helpful votes

You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Deuteronomy 6:20-25 ESV / 5 helpful votes

“When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. ...

Deuteronomy 6:1-25 ESV / 5 helpful votes

“Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ...

Genesis 6:1-22 ESV / 5 helpful votes

When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. ...

Titus 2:4-5 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

2 Timothy 3:17 ESV / 4 helpful votes

That the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:15 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 3:14-17 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Ephesians 5:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

Romans 8:28 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Malachi 2:15 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.

Psalm 103:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

1 Chronicles 16:11 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!

1 Samuel 1:27-28 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Leviticus 19:29 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, lest the land fall into prostitution and the land become full of depravity.

Exodus 21:15 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.

Exodus 2:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes

When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

Genesis 14:14 ESV / 4 helpful votes

When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.

Revelation 1:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

James 1:1-27 ESV / 3 helpful votes

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. ...

Hebrews 12:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

2 Timothy 1:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.

Ephesians 6:1-3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

Ephesians 6:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

1 Corinthians 11:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.

John 3:16-17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Luke 2:51-52 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

Matthew 19:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 7:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Isaiah 38:19 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The living, the living, he thanks you, as I do this day; the father makes known to the children your faithfulness.

Proverbs 23:24 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.

Proverbs 17:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers.

Proverbs 3:11-12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

Psalm 78:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.

Nehemiah 9:1-38 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads. And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God. On the stairs of the Levites stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani; and they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God. Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. ...

1 Samuel 8:1-3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice.

Ephesians 5:25-33 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, ...

Proverbs 3:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

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