19 Bible verses about children for anyone raising one
Written by Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt · Reviewed by Raphael Navarro Schmitt ·
Short answer
The Bible treats children as a gift and a responsibility at the same time. Psalm 126:3 calls them the inheritance of the Lord, Proverbs 22:6 observes that a youth stays close to his own way, and Ephesians 6:4 warns parents not to provoke their children to anger. The verses below unfold all three.
Raising a child is the subject on which the Bible most freely mixes tenderness and warning on the same page. It calls a child a gift and then, a few chapters later, points out that you can irritate one all the way into revolt. Both things are said to the same person: whoever is doing the raising.
Part of this list talks about the child and part of it talks to the child. That is deliberate. Paul’s letters were read aloud with the children in the room, and he addresses them directly — which changes the tone for anyone reading these verses to a son or daughter today, rather than merely about them.
The list starts with who the child already is, moves through how teaching actually happens, and ends on the part none of us controls.
All 19 verses, one by one
3Behold, the inheritance of the Lord is sons, the reward is the fruit of the womb.
4Like arrows in the hand of the powerful, so are the sons of those who have been cast out.
5Blessed is the man who has filled his desire from these things. He will not be confounded when he speaks to his enemies at the gate.
The image is arrows in the hand of a warrior — objects made to be let go of. The psalm praises having children and, inside the very same metaphor, warns that they leave.
Read the chapter13For you have possessed my temperament. You have supported me from the womb of my mother.
14I will confess to you, for you have been magnified terribly. Your works are miraculous, as my soul knows exceedingly well.
15My bone, which you have made in secret, has not been hidden from you, and my substance is in accord with the lower parts of the earth.
16Your eyes saw my imperfection, and all this shall be written in your book. Days will be formed, and no one shall be in them.
Written in the first person: an adult looking back at his own making. Notice what the last line risks saying — God’s eyes saw the unfinished thing, and it was already written in his book. Worth reading aloud to a child who has decided he is worthless.
Read the chapterAnd lifting up his eyes, he saw the women and their little ones, and he said: “What do these want for themselves?” and “Are they related to you?” He responded, “These are the little ones that God has given as a gift to me, your servant.”
Jacob introduces his children to the brother he had once fled from, in the middle of a reconciliation. His answer — these are the little ones God has given as a gift — is the shortest definition of inheritance anyone has managed.
Read the chapter“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you went forth from the womb, I sanctified you. And I made you a prophet to the nations.”
Said to a young man who had just protested that he was too young. The verse moves identity to a point before any performance at all, which is exactly what an insecure child needs to hear.
Read the chapterThe proverb is: A youth is close to his way; even when he is old, he will not withdraw from it.
This edition labels it out loud: "The proverb is". And what follows is an observation, not a guarantee — a youth close to his way, his own, in the singular. There is no single method here. There is one specific child, with one specific grain to him, and the duty of knowing which.
Read the chapter8Listen, my son, to the discipline of your father, and forsake not the law of your mother,
9so that grace may be added to your head and a collar to your neck.
Father and mother stand side by side, carrying identical weight, on the opening page of the book. And what the two of them teach is compared to a collar and an added grace, not to a chain.
Read the chapter1Listen, sons, to the discipline of a father, and pay attention, so that you may know prudence.
2I will bestow upon you a good gift. Do not relinquish my law.
3For I, too, was the son of my father, tender and an only son in the sight of my mother.
4And he taught me, and he also said: “Let your heart accept my words. Keep my precepts, and you shall live.
Watch what happens halfway through: the author remembers that he was somebody’s son too, and quotes what he heard from his own father. Upbringing here is handed on, not invented.
Read the chapterTeach your son, and he will refresh you, and he will give delight to your soul.
In this edition the verb is simply teach — there is no rod and no punishment anywhere in the line — and the promised result is the parent’s own rest. What it asks for is steady, repeated instruction, which costs far more than one outburst ever does.
Read the chapterAnd you, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but educate them with the discipline and correction of the Lord.
The command has two halves, and the first one is a prohibition: do not provoke them to anger. It is perfectly possible to get the discipline right and wreck the whole thing through tone.
Read the chapterA child may be understood by his interests: whether his works may be clean and upright.
A reminder that a child is already somebody now, and not an adult in draft. What she does today already says something true about her.
Read the chapterCome forward, sons. Listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
David calls children over to teach them, in the middle of a psalm about having been badly frightened. Whoever teaches out of their own fright teaches differently from someone teaching out of theory.
Read the chapter13And they brought to him the little children, so that he might touch them. But the disciples admonished those who brought them.
14But when Jesus saw this, he took offense, and he said to them: “Allow the little ones to come to me, and do not prohibit them. For of such as these is the kingdom of God.
15Amen I say to you, whoever will not accept the kingdom of God like a little child, will not enter into it.”
16And embracing them, and laying his hands upon them, he blessed them.
The disciples had decided children were interfering with the schedule. Jesus took offence — a reaction the gospels record in him only rarely — and then embraced them and laid his hands on them.
Read the chapterAnd whoever shall accept one such little child in my name, accepts me.
Receiving one child is put on a level with receiving Christ himself. It is the line that dismantles the idea that children are a second-order matter while the adults get on with what counts.
Read the chapterSee to it that you do not despise even one of these little ones. For I say to you, that their Angels in heaven continually look upon the face of my Father, who is in heaven.
The verb is despise, and it describes something very ordinary: treating a child as though she does not understand, does not hear, or does not count in the conversation.
Read the chapterAll your children will be taught by the Lord. And great will be the peace of your children.
A relief for anyone raising someone: your children will be taught by the Lord. It does not excuse the work at home, but it does take from parents the illusion of being the only teacher in the room.
Read the chapterAnd Jesus advanced in wisdom, and in age, and in grace, with God and men.
The only sentence in the gospels about the adolescence of Jesus, and it lists four things: wisdom, age, grace, and standing with God and with people. None of them alone — which makes a decent ruler for checking how a child is actually growing.
Read the chapter24The father of the just exults in gladness; he who has conceived the wise will rejoice in him.
25Let your father and your mother be joyful, and may she who conceived you exult.
The gladness described here does not come from marks or from a career: it comes from a child who is just and wise. Useful for recalibrating what gets celebrated at home.
Read the chapterLet no one despise your youth, but be an example among the faithful in word, in behavior, in charity, in faith, in chastity.
Written to a young leader, and it is the verse to hand a teenager. It does not say wait until you have grown up: it says be an example now, and then lists exactly in what.
Read the chapterOut of the mouths of babes and infants, you have perfected praise, because of your enemies, so that you may destroy the enemy and the revenger.
What God perfects out of the mouths of babies is praise. The very next line turns to the moon and the stars, so the contrast is plainly deliberate: the smallest voices first, then the sky.
Read the chapter
Frequently asked questions
What does the Bible say about raising children?
It holds affection and responsibility together. Psalm 126:3 calls children the inheritance of the Lord, Proverbs 22:6 observes that a youth stays close to his own way, and Ephesians 6:4 expressly forbids provoking children to anger before it says a word about discipline.
Does the Bible tell parents to hit their children?
Proverbs uses the correction language of the ancient world — 13:24 and 23:13-14 speak of the rod — and Christian traditions read those lines very differently from one another. What the texts say plainly is elsewhere: Proverbs 29:17 here reads simply "teach your son", and Ephesians 6:4 forbids provoking a child to anger. Many countries now prohibit corporal punishment outright; check the law where you live.
Which verse should I read for a child who has walked away?
Psalm 138:13-16, because it states his worth independently of the moment he is in, and Isaiah 54:13, which hands the teaching back to God when he no longer accepts yours. Proverbs 22:6 is often read as a guarantee, but it is a proverb — this edition even says so — and it describes the usual, it does not issue a promise.
What did Jesus say about children?
Mark 10:13-16 shows the disciples pushing children away and Jesus taking offence, then embracing them and laying his hands on them. Matthew 18:5 puts receiving a child on a level with receiving Christ himself, and Matthew 18:10 forbids despising them.
A prayer to take with you
Lord, thank you for the one you gave me to raise. Keep me from wounding through tone what I am trying to teach through words. Give me patience today, and the courage to apologise in front of them when I get it wrong. Amen.