There is nothing like the Bible. Nothing. For Christians, the Bible is more than a book, it’s the Word of God himself. For parents, the Bible is a guidebook, a lifeline, a comfort, and a light that shines into the dim and dark spaces of our children’s hearts. While many would agree with those statements, the real question is whether or not that truth bears weight in our day-to-day lives. In other words, does what God says have a tangible effect in our lives? Do we submit ourselves (that’s a tough pill to swallow) to its authority?

The Bible Reads Us

As you peruse the verses below, it’s important to approach them with humility. In our age of Google searches and Wikipedia entries, it’s too easy to approach the Bible as one in critique. This is the wrong approach. God’s Word critiques us. We don’t read God’s Word; God’s Word reads us. 

Submission to Scripture as authoritative is a counter-cultural perspective, but one that must govern our hearts as we approach God’s Word. Otherwise, we’re ships lost at stormy sea without an anchor or hope of rescue. In his book, God’s Word Alone, Matthew Barrett writes, “Scripture is the constitution of the covenant between God and his people. Therefore, to reject God’s Word is to reject his covenant as well. Redemptive history demonstrates that the covenantal Word of the triune God proves true.”

Let us keep that in mind as we encounter verses in the Bible that speak to us as parents. As we do, we can hold fast to the promise that God’s ways are higher than our ways, and that he who promised is faithful.

Bible Verses for Parents

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. (Psalm 127:3–5)

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6)

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. (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)

Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart. (Proverbs 29:17)

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. (Ephesians 6:1–4)

Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. (Colossians 3:21)

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1)

Tell your children of it,
and let your children tell their children,
and their children to another generation. (Joel 1:3)

Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him. (Proverbs 13:24)

The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. (Proverbs 29:15)

And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. And he said to the people of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.” (Joshua 4:20-24 )

Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. (Titus 2:7)

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. (Proverbs 1:8-9)

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. (Exodus 20:12)

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 23:13–14)

Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death. (Proverbs 19:18)

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? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 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. (Hebrews 12:7-11)

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. (Psalm 103:13)

Not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. (1 Peter 5:3)

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 5:8)

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. (Ephesians 6:1-4)

Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him. (Proverbs 22:15)

Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. (2 Corinthians 12:14)

Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 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. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. (Titus 2:2–8)

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. (Hebrews 12:11)

A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother. (Proverbs 10:1)

Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old. (Proverbs 23:22)

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8)

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. (Psalm 78:4)

For the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights. (Proverbs 3:12)

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—(Deuteronomy 4:9)

Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. (Colossians 3:20-21)

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6)

Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. (Deuteronomy 5:16)

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 3:15)

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. 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. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways!
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.
Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.
(Psalm 128:1–4)