30 Meaningful Bible Verses About Children and Parenting (2024)

There's no time in life like childhood, and the Bible speaks to it throughout its many books. What exactly does it say though? Here we rounded up 30 Bible verses about children to give you a full picture of it.

Scriptures speak about everything from parents' love for a child to children's behavior (with a call to honor their father and mother). Perhaps the best known verses, Psalm 127:3 reminds us that “Children are a gift from the Lord” and Proverbs 22: 6 to
"train up a child in the way he should go." Among them are calls to teach children God's words and how Jesus tells his followers to become like children to enter the kingdom of heaven. The Bible also speaks to children as it speaks to all of humanity, with plenty of verses about love and about the peace of God in hard times.

Scroll through these verses and look for ones to encourage the parents or children in your life, or consider writing one in a card to go with a gift for a new mom (we have plenty of baby shower ideas too).

Powerful Bible Verses to Encourage Yourself & Others

• Bible Verses About Strength for Hard Times
• Bible Verses About Encouraging Others
• Bible Verses about Courage and Strength
• Bible Verses About Healing

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

“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 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.”

“And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.’”

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

“A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.”

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

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

“Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.”

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

“Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.”

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

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

“Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.”

“Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.”

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

“Children’s children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children.”

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

“Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!”

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.”

“At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’ ”