Much can be and has been said about parenting. As parents, it’s vital that we fill our ears, heads, and hearts with ideas that are rooted in God’s Word and stir our hearts to love our kids the way He intended. As we’ve continued our journey into parenthood, we’ve found the quotes below to be encouraging, insightful, biblical, and inspiring. We hope you find one (or more!) that do the same for you!

Note: Of course, nothing speaks to parenting better than the Bible! This post is meant to be a compilation of quotes from literature and other works besides the Bible. If you’d like to see a list of scriptures that speak to parenting, make sure to check out our other post, Bible Verses for Parents.

You will notice a large proportion of quotes from Paul David Tripp and Charles Spurgeon! You can find dedicate compilations of their quotes here (Dr. Tripp) and here (Spurgeon).

Inspiring Christian Parenting Quotes

No parent gives mercy better than one who is convinced that he desperately needs it himself.
– Paul David Tripp

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.
– Frederick Douglass

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Masters of families, who preside in the other affairs of the house, must go before their households in the things of God… as such they must keep up family-doctrine, family worship, and family discipline: then is there a church in the house, and this is the family religion I am persuading you to.
– Matthew Henry

Everything depends on upbringing.
– Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

Don’t give in to any perspective on parenting that convinces you that the promises and goals of the Gospel are beyond your teenager’s reach.
– Paul David Tripp

We never know the love of the parent till we become parents ourselves.
– Henry Ward Beecher

The foolishness inside your children is more dangerous to them than the temptation outside of them. Only God’s grace has the power to rescue fools.
– Paul David Tripp

The home is a special place. It’s where relationships are forged, it’s where real life happens, and it’s’ where character is carefully chiseled.
– Selena Frederick

If you want lasting influence in the world, influence your family.
– Bob Goff

To you the message is simple—fly at once, with your household, to the throne of grace!
– J. W. Alexander

Most assuredly God will require an account of the children from your hands, for they are His, and only lent to your care and keeping. The task assigned you is no easy one, especially in these superlatively evil days. Nevertheless, if trustfully and earnestly sought, the grace fo God will be found sufficient in this responsibility as in others. The Scriptures supply us with rules to go by, with promises to lay hold of, and, we may add, with fearful warnings lest we treat the matter lightly.
– Arthur W. Pink

God didn’t give you your children to build your reputation but to publicly proclaim his.
– Paul David Tripp

Moms are not perfect—we are being perfected.
– Sue Detweiler

God doesn’t want us to rescue our children. He’s the Rescuer.
– Elizabeth Musser

If we never have headaches through rebuking our children, we shall have plenty of heartaches when they grow up.
– C. H. Spurgeon

One of the foundational heart issues in the life of every child is authority. Teaching and modeling the protective beauty of authority is one of the foundations of good parenting.
– Paul David Tripp

The balancing act we parents attempt is convincing our children: 1. You are loved more than you can imagine. 2. The world does not revolve around you.
– John Eldredge

Who are you becoming as a result of knowing Jesus? How you answer that single question has the greatest impact on how you lead, love, and instruct your kids.
– Ryan G. Frederick

In every moment when you are parenting, you are being parented. In every moment when you are called to give grace, you are being given grace. In every moment when you are rescuing and protecting your children, you are being rescued and protected. In every moment when you feel alone, you are anything but alone because he goes wherever you go.
– Paul David Tripp

The moment when I am most repelled by a child’s behavior, that is my sign to draw the very closest to that child.
– Ann Voskamp

It is only rest in God’s presence and grace that will make you a joyful and patient parent
– Paul David Tripp

God knows the feelings of discouragement, inadequacy, and failure which conscientious parents feel. But it was His idea to make them parents and to give them this particular set of children. He knew they would not do a perfect job. He is Father to the parents, and promises every kind of help they need. He stands beside them in every situation, ready to give wisdom as needed and grace to help in time of need if only they will turn to Him and ask for it.
– Elisabeth Elliot

The authority with which God has invested you, as parents and governors of families, is a talent committed to your trust and which you are bound to improve to your Master’s honor.
– George Whitefield

The goal of parenting is not control of behavior, but rather heart and life change.
– Paul David Tripp

I cannot read the Word, i cannot sing, I cannot pray, without leaving some trace on the tender mind. How solemnly, how affectionately, how believingly, should I then approach this ordinance! With how much godly fear and preparation!
– J. W. Alexander

Your marriage is the gospel you’re preaching to your kids.
– Jackie Bledsoe

If parents are looking for a convenient time to schedule family worship, they may as well forget about the idea. Christianity is not a matter of convenience; it involves cost.
– Howard Hendricks

You are parenting a worshiper, so it’s important to remember that what rules your child’s heart will control his behavior.
– Paul David Tripp

In matters of doctrine you will find orthodox congregations frequently change to heterodoxy in the course of thirty or forty years and that is because too often there has been no catechizing of the children in the essential doctrines of the Gospel.
– C. H. Spurgeon

Not all of the wrong your children do is a direct rebellion to authority; much of the wrong is the result of a lack of character.
– Paul David Tripp

Though learning be found in schools, godliness is often received from the education of careful parents.
– Richard Baxter

God gives to fallible parents this little boy or girl, who will certainly prove to be far from perfect, to love and train and teach, to bring up, in the “nurture and admonition”, the training and instruction, of the Lord. It’s a serious assignment. There is no higher calling.
– Elisabeth Elliot

Let no Christian parents fall into the delusion that Sunday School is intended to ease them of their personal duties.
– C. H. Spurgeon

If you are not resting as a parent in your identity in Christ, you will look for identity in your children.
– Paul David Tripp

Let us from the beginning mingle the name of Jesus with their A B C. Let them read their first lessons from the Bible.
– C. H. Spurgeon

A father is a looking-glass, which the child often dresses himself by; let the class be clear and not spotted.”
– Thomas Watson

The process of shaping the child, shapes also the mother herself. Reverence for her sacred burden calls her to all that is pure and good, that she may teach primarily by her own humble, daily example.
– Elisabeth Elliot

The teaching which issues only from the lips is not at all likely to sink any deeper than the ears. Children are particularly quick to detect inconsistencies and to despise hypocrisy.
– Arthur W. Pink

Tell the child that he is dead in trespasses and sins, let there be no doubt about his natural condition.
– C. H. Spurgeon

Teach the little ones the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
– C. H. Spurgeon

Tell him he must be born again. . . . Be tender, but be true.
– C. H. Spurgeon

I believe that children are, by nature, very forgiving. I don’t think children expect their parents to be perfect. I think they demand that their parents be real.
– Beth Moore

Gather the little ones around your knee and listen to their words, suggesting to them their needs, and reminding them of God’s gracious promise.
– C. H. Spurgeon

Train up a child in the way he should go—but be sure you go that way yourself.
– C. H. Spurgeon

One of the most beautiful thins a parent can say to a child is, ‘Son, I may make a mistake, but I want you to know I’m going to do the best that I possibly know how. And if I blow it, you’ll be the first to know.’ This is the sign of an honest parent. And an honest parent develops an honest child.
– Howard Hendricks

Your children need God’s law, but you cannot ask the law to do what only grace can accomplish.
– Paul David Tripp

The group consisting of mother, father, and child is the main educational agency of mankind.
– Martin Luther King Jr.

So what is to be noted here is that heads of family must go to the trouble of being instructed in God’s Word if they are to do their duty.
– John Calvin

[The Bible] constantly directs our view to children, and children’s children; teaching us that all the good which we have is to be transmitted.
– J. W. Alexander

A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.
– Theodore Roosevelt

Set before your child life and death, hell and heaven, judgment and mercy, his own sin, and Christ’s most precious blood.
– C. H. Spurgeon

Parenting brings incredible, indescribable joys. But because our children matter so much to us, parenting can also bring incredible challenges and devastating heartbreak. For such an important task, we need to have our thoughts and attitudes and our dreams and desires shaped by Scripture.
– Nancie Guthrie

Nothing is more important in your life than being one of God’s tools to form a human soul.
– Paul David Tripp

I know not how a minister can employ his time, studies, and pen better (next to the conviction and conversion of particular souls), than impressing upon householders a care of the souls under their charge.
– Oliver Heywood

Many Christians tods are praying for revival in the church, but there will never be revival in the church unless there is revival in the home.
– Howard Hendricks