Bible Verses About Children

But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Two commands, and the second is aimed at adults: do not hinder them. The obstacle being removed is not the children's behaviour but the disciples' gatekeeping. And the reason attached is a possession claim — the kingdom belongs to such as these — which is stated about the children rather than about anyone's opinion of them.

People were bringing children for a blessing and the disciples rebuked them for it. Mark's version of the same scene records that Jesus was indignant.

Truly I tell you, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

The comparison runs the direction adults do not expect. Children are not being told to become like adults to enter; adults are being told the entry is only available on a child's terms. And "receive" is the operative verb — what is being copied is the posture of someone with nothing to trade.

“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in My name welcomes Me, and whoever welcomes Me welcomes not only Me, but the One who sent Me.”

A chain with three links: welcoming a child is welcoming him, and welcoming him is welcoming the Father. Nothing in that sequence is metaphorical about who is present. It sets the value of an act nobody was recording — being kind to a child, in a room, with no audience.

See that you do not look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of My Father in heaven.

"Look down on" is a status verb, and it is the specific offence named. The reason given is about representation — their angels always see the Father's face — which means the child is being described as connected upward rather than as merely small. It is an argument about standing, not about cuteness.

It would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.

The harshest thing Jesus says about anyone's treatment of anyone, and the comparison is that drowning would be preferable. There is no softening clause. Whatever else the gospels are gentle about, the mistreatment of a child is the subject on which the language is at its most extreme.

Children are indeed a heritage from the LORD, and the fruit of the womb is His reward.

"Heritage" is a property word — an allotment received rather than earned, and one you hold rather than produce. The psalm classes children with land, which sounds cold until you notice what it rules out: they are not a reward for good behaviour and not a project with deliverables.

Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of a son is his father.

The proverb runs in both directions at once. Grandchildren crown the old; parents are the glory of the young. Neither generation is described as the achievement of the other — the honour is mutual and reciprocal, which is unusual in a book that mostly advises downward.

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

John is writing about spiritual children rather than biological ones, and the sentence works for both. What he names as the greatest joy is not their success, safety or affection — it is hearing they are walking in the truth, which is a report he receives from elsewhere rather than something he supervises.

Then all your sons will be taught by the LORD, and great will be their prosperity.

The teacher named is not the parent. All your sons will be taught by the LORD — which relocates the decisive instruction outside the household, and is either a relief or an affront depending on how much of your identity is invested in being the one who explains things.

Even a young man is known by his actions—whether his conduct is pure and upright.

A diagnostic rather than an instruction, and the evidence it admits is conduct: even a young man is known by his actions. The proverb is not telling you what to do about it. It is saying the information is already available, considerably earlier than parents usually believe.

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

Read as a guarantee it becomes an accusation, aimed at the parent whose adult child left. Proverbs deals in general patterns — the same book has a wise son and a foolish son coming out of the same house. What this promises is that the training goes in and stays available, which is not the same as saying it will be obeyed.

Proverbs states what usually happens, not what always does. Elsewhere the book concedes that the diligent sometimes stay poor and the wicked sometimes prosper.

And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Four settings are listed and none of them is a lesson: sitting at home, walking on the road, lying down, getting up. The instruction is to talk about it in the gaps, which means the transmission being described happens in exactly the moments a busy parent assumes do not count.

Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction, and do not forsake the teaching of your mother.

Two parents, two different words — the father gives instruction, the mother gives teaching — and both are addressed to a son old enough to disregard them. This is not advice to a small child. It is written to somebody who now has the option, which is why the verb is "do not forsake".

My son, keep your father’s commandment, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

The same pairing again, and the repetition across chapters tells you it is a formula rather than a passing remark. What is worth noticing is the symmetry: in a legal culture that gave fathers enormous authority, the mother's teaching is given equal standing in the sentence.

The living, only the living, can thank You, as I do today; fathers will tell their children about Your faithfulness.

Hezekiah says this having just been told he would recover from a terminal illness. The transmission he names — fathers telling children about God's faithfulness — is framed as the thing the living can do and the dead cannot, which makes it an argument for more time rather than a parenting instruction.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath; instead, bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

The prohibition comes first and the positive instruction second, which is the reverse of how it is usually quoted. Do not provoke to wrath — a warning about the effect you are producing, not about the rules you are setting. Paul addresses fathers specifically, in a culture where their authority was legally near-absolute.

Fathers, do not provoke your children, so they will not become discouraged.

The consequence named here is different and worse: discouragement rather than anger. A discouraged child stops trying, which is quieter and harder to notice than a furious one. Paul gives no list of what counts as provoking, which leaves the parent to work it out from the outcome.

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

Eleven words with a qualifier in the middle that does a great deal: in the Lord. The obedience is not unconditional and not owed to the parent's authority as such — it is framed inside a prior loyalty. That clause is why this verse has never been usable as a defence of a parent's every demand.

Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord.

"In everything" is broader than the Ephesians version and this is the one people quote at teenagers. Read it against the very next verse, which is addressed to the parents and is a restraint — Paul writes them as a pair, and quoting one half at a child while ignoring the other is the standard misuse.

A woman has pain in childbirth because her time has come; but when she brings forth her child, she forgets her anguish because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.

Jesus uses childbirth as an analogy for his own death and what follows it, which tells you how the pain is being weighted. The mechanism named is not that the woman decides it was worth it — it is that she forgets the anguish, which is a claim about what joy does to memory rather than about arithmetic.

And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

Fourteen words covering eighteen years, and four dimensions are listed: wisdom, stature, favour with God, favour with man. It is the only thing the gospels record about Jesus between twelve and thirty. Whatever else it establishes, it makes ordinary unremarkable growing the normal shape of a life.

From the mouths of children and infants You have ordained praise on account of Your adversaries, to silence the enemy and avenger.

The psalm assigns children a function in an argument — praise from their mouths silences an adversary. That is an odd claim and a deliberate one: what silences the opposition is not the strongest voice available but the least impressive, which is the same reversal running through the first section of this page.

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Even if she could forget, I will not forget you! Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are ever before Me.

Isaiah picks the least plausible failure he can imagine — a nursing mother forgetting her infant — concedes it might happen, and then goes past it. The image that follows is engraving, which is permanent and done to the hands. He is not arguing that mothers are reliable; he is using their reliability as the low bar.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.

Popular on graduation cards. It was written to exiles who had just been told they would be there seventy years, and addressed to a nation rather than a person.