100 Bible Verses about Leading Children

Proverbs 22:6 ESV / 72 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 6:4 ESV / 48 helpful votes

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Psalm 127:3-5 ESV / 31 helpful votes

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.

2 Timothy 3:15 ESV / 27 helpful votes

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.

Colossians 3:21 ESV / 27 helpful votes

Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

2 Timothy 3:14-15 ESV / 21 helpful votes

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 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.

Matthew 18:10 ESV / 21 helpful votes

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

Proverbs 29:17 ESV / 21 helpful votes

Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart.

Isaiah 11:6 ESV / 20 helpful votes

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.

Proverbs 13:24 ESV / 20 helpful votes

Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.

Psalm 113:9 ESV / 20 helpful votes

He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord!

Ephesians 6:1-24 ESV / 19 helpful votes

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. Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, ...

Deuteronomy 11:19 ESV / 18 helpful votes

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.

Exodus 20:12 ESV / 18 helpful votes

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

Mark 10:13-16 ESV / 17 helpful votes

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

Proverbs 17:6 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers.

Proverbs 22:15 ESV / 16 helpful votes

Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

1 Peter 3:15 ESV / 15 helpful votes

But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 15 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

2 Timothy 1:5 ESV / 15 helpful votes

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.

1 Timothy 4:12 ESV / 15 helpful votes

Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

Colossians 3:20 ESV / 15 helpful votes

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

Matthew 19:14 ESV / 15 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 1:8-9 ESV / 15 helpful votes

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.

Psalm 127:3 ESV / 15 helpful votes

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.

Matthew 21:15-16 ESV / 14 helpful votes

But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?”

Matthew 18:2-6 ESV / 14 helpful votes

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. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

Psalm 23:1-6 ESV / 14 helpful votes

A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ...

Ephesians 6:1-4 ESV / 13 helpful votes

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.

Matthew 18:6 ESV / 13 helpful votes

But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

Proverbs 29:2 ESV / 13 helpful votes

When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.

Proverbs 6:20 ESV / 13 helpful votes

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

2 Chronicles 34:1-3 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father; and he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of David his father, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, and the carved and the metal images.

Deuteronomy 4:9 ESV / 13 helpful votes

“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—

Genesis 33:5 ESV / 13 helpful votes

And when Esau lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children, he said, “Who are these with you?” Jacob said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.”

1 Peter 5:5 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

1 Peter 2:2-3 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Colossians 3:18 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

Proverbs 23:13-14 ESV / 12 helpful votes

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.

Deuteronomy 6:7 ESV / 12 helpful votes

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 6:6-9 ESV / 12 helpful votes

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.

Leviticus 19:3 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.

James 1:22 ESV / 11 helpful votes

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Titus 2:4-5 ESV / 11 helpful votes

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.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV / 11 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Ephesians 6:1 ESV / 11 helpful votes

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

Matthew 7:12 ESV / 11 helpful votes

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Proverbs 29:15 ESV / 11 helpful votes

The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 ESV / 11 helpful votes

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.

1 John 1:9 ESV / 10 helpful votes

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 Timothy 5:4 ESV / 10 helpful votes

But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.

Galatians 5:22-23 ESV / 10 helpful votes

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

1 Corinthians 11:3 ESV / 10 helpful votes

But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.

Luke 18:15-17 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

Psalm 8:2 ESV / 10 helpful votes

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

Genesis 18:19 ESV / 10 helpful votes

For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”

1 John 3:2 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

1 John 3:1 ESV / 9 helpful votes

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Galatians 6:9 ESV / 9 helpful votes

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Matthew 19:13-14 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 18:12-14 ESV / 9 helpful votes

What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

Matthew 18:1-5 ESV / 9 helpful votes

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. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me,

Ezekiel 20:18 ESV / 9 helpful votes

“And I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor keep their rules, nor defile yourselves with their idols.

Isaiah 38:19 ESV / 9 helpful votes

The living, the living, he thanks you, as I do this day; the father makes known to the children your faithfulness.

Proverbs 19:18 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death.

1 Peter 5:2 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly;

1 Peter 2:1-25 ESV / 8 helpful votes

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ...

James 1:27 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

2 Corinthians 4:4 ESV / 8 helpful votes

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

John 16:21 ESV / 8 helpful votes

When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.

Matthew 20:26 ESV / 8 helpful votes

It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,

Isaiah 54:13 ESV / 8 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 23:22 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.

1 John 3:18 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

1 John 3:1-24 ESV / 7 helpful votes

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ...

1 John 2:1 ESV / 7 helpful votes

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Hebrews 13:17 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

1 Timothy 3:5 ESV / 7 helpful votes

For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?

Philippians 4:13 ESV / 7 helpful votes

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Ephesians 6:1-3 ESV / 7 helpful votes

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.”

Ephesians 5:1 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

Galatians 6:2 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV / 7 helpful votes

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

John 3:16-17 ESV / 7 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Matthew 18:2 ESV / 7 helpful votes

And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them

Ecclesiastes 12:1 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;

Proverbs 29:4 ESV / 7 helpful votes

By justice a king builds up the land, but he who exacts gifts tears it down.

Psalm 139:13-16 ESV / 7 helpful votes

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

1 Chronicles 16:11 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!

Deuteronomy 6:1-25 ESV / 7 helpful votes

“Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. “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. ...

Deuteronomy 4:9-10 ESV / 7 helpful votes

“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— how on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’

Exodus 20:5-6 ESV / 7 helpful votes

You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

1 Peter 2:25 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Philippians 2:3 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Ephesians 5:9 ESV / 6 helpful votes

(for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),

Revelation 1:1 ESV / 5 helpful votes

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

Hebrews 13:7 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

Titus 2:6 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.

1 Timothy 5:8 ESV / 5 helpful votes

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.

Ephesians 3:14-21 ESV / 5 helpful votes

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ...

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