Inspirational Verses on Raising Biblical Families

Are there really “Biblical families” today? 

Today, we are surrounded by the pressure of social media to obtain the image of being the “perfect” family, which often consists of loving parents and obedient children. There can be families who put on the appearance of being seemingly perfect to other people, but still continue to struggle with parenting methods, pressure at work or school, financial issues and many others. Yet, rather than being discouraged by what we see online, let us take a moment to truly reflect on the meaning of family within the scriptures. 

What is considered a family guided by God? They are those who are rooted within God and His Word, as it mentions in Deuteronomy 6:6-9, the commandments of God are to be impressed upon our children. While we may struggle with showing love, the perfect examples to look to are God and Jesus, who have loved and forgiven us so that we may also love and forgive others. 

Here are some verses that may help families grow together under God’s love: 

1. As a mother consoles a child, so I will console you, and you will be consoled over Jerusalem. Isaiah 66:14
2. Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him. – Proverbs 22:15, ESV
3. Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, – 1 Peter 3:1, ESV
4. “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” – Romans 12:9, ESV
5. Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. – 1 Peter 3:7, ESV
6. Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth, or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty. Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my knowledge, for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips. That your trust may be in the Lord, I have made them known to you today, even to you. – Proverbs 22:16-19, ESV
7. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” – Joshua 24:15, ESV
8. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” – Mark 10:6-9, ESV
9. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. – Colossians 3:19, ESV
10. The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down. – Proverbs 14:1, ESV
11. And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. – Acts 16:31-32, ESV
12. Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live – Exodus 1:15-17, ESV
13. For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ – Matthew 15:4, ESV
14. 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 3:2, ESV
15. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. – Exodus 2:12, ESV. 
16. 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. – 2 Timothy 1:5, ESV
17. We love because he first loved us. – 1 John 4:19, ESV
18. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. – 1 John 3:3, ESV
19. A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish man despises his mother. – Proverbs 15:20, ESV
20. I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. – 1 Corinthians 1:10, ESV
21. 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. – 1 Corinthians 11:3, ESV
22. A brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city, and quarreling is like the bars of a castle. – Proverbs 18:19, ESV
23. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. – Psalm 127:3, ESV
24. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. – Colossians 1:13, ESV
25. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. – 1 Corinthians 13:1-2, ESV
26. To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife. – 1 Corinthians 7:10-11, ESV
27. Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. – Ephesians 5:21, ESV
28. And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” – Mark 3:31-35, ESV
29. A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. – Proverbs 18:24, ESV
30. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through h=Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. – Colossians 1:16-17, ESV
31. Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. – Proverbs 22:6, ESV
32. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven. – Matthew 18:19-22, ESV
33. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; – 1 Corinthians 13:3-5, ESV
34. Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. – Jeremiah 29:5-6, ESV
35. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God. – Acts 16:33-34, ESV
36. “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. – Isaiah 49:15, ESV
37. A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. – Proverbs 17:17, ESV
38. The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find? – Proverbs 20:5-6, ESV
39. For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, – Ephesians 3:14-15, ESV
40. My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for the length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. – Proverbs 3:1-2, ESV
41. An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones. – Proverbs 12:24, ESV
42. Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation. Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them. – Psalm 11:1-2, ESV
43. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, – Ephesians 5:25, ESV
44. Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.  – Proverbs 3:3-4, ESV
45. 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, ESV
46. May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you! May He send you help from the sanctuary and give you support from Zion! May He remember all your offerings and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah – Psalm 20:1-3, ESV
47. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. – Colossians 3:20, ESV
48. Full of splendor and majesty is His work, and His righteousness endures forever. He has caused His wondrous works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and merciful. He provides food for those who fear Him; He remembers His covenant forever. – Psalm 111:3-5, ESV
49. And I will be a Father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me, says the Lord Almighty.” – 2 Corinthians 6:18, ESV
50. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding – Proverbs 3:5, ESV
51. 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.” – Genesis 18:19, ESV 
52. May He grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans! May we shout for joy over your salvation, and in the name of our God set up our banners! May the Lord fulfill all your petitions! – Psalm 20:4-5, ESV
53. “‘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, ESV
54. “He has put my brothers far from me, and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me. My relatives have failed me, my close friends have forgotten me. The guests in my house and my maid servants count me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes. I call my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy. My breath is strange to my wife, and I am a stench to the children of my own mother. – Job 19:13-17, ESV
55. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. – John 15:12-15, ESV
56. The Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. May He not leave us or forsake us, – 1 Kings 8:57, ESV
57. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” – Genesis 1:28, ESV
58. And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord gave them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years. There was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. And his wife was barren and had no children. And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” – Judges 13:1-5, ESV
59. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. – Ephesians 5:33, ESV.
60. He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock. – Deuteronomy 7:13-14, ESV
61. A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous. – Proverbs 13:22, ESV
62. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land . For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. – Genesis 28:15, ESV
63. 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, ESV
64. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.  – Revelations 1:8-9, ESV
65. 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, ESV
66. And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you. And you shall consume all the peoples that the Lord your God will give over to you. Your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you. “If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?’ – Deuteronomy 7:15-17, ESV
67. Song of Ascents of David. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! – Psalm 133:1, ESV
68. He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, – Ephesians 1:5, ESV
69. Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. – 1 Timothy 3:12, ESV
70. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” – Luke 11:13, ESV
71. 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 127:4-5, ESV
72. Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. – Luke 3:8-10, ESV
73. Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. She conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” And she called his name Joseph, saying, “May the Lord add to me another son!” – Genesis 30:22-24, ESV
74. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” – Matthew 12:50, ESV
75. A devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. – Acts 10:2, ESV
76. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. – 1 Peter 4:8, ESV
77. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” – Romans 8:15, ESV
78. With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, – Ephesians 4:2, ESV
79. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. – Genesis 2:24, ESV
80. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. – Colossians 3:1-5, ESV
81. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. – Acts 18:8, ESV
82. Whoever troubles his own household will inherit the wind, and the fool will be a servant to the wise of heart. – Proverbs 11:29, ESV
83. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. – Psalm 1:1-2, ESV
84. Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household, but he who hates bribes will live. – Proverbs 15:27, ESV
85. Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity. – 1 Timothy 5:1-2, ESV
86. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, – 1 Timothy 3:4, ESV
87. She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, – 1 Timothy 5:5, ESV
88. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and His righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep His covenant and remember to do His commandments. – Psalm 103:17-18, ESV
89. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. – Psalm 1:3-4, ESV
90. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. – Psalm 128:3, ESV
91. Honor widows who are truly widows. 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. – 1 Timothy 5:3-4, ESV
92. “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.” – Malachi 2:16, ESV
93. And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? – Matthew 19:3-5, ESV
94. My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching. – Proverbs 6:20, ESV
95. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. – Genesis 26:3, ESV
96. Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, – Proverbs 1:18, ESV
97. For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? – 1 Timothy 3:5, ESV
98. For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in. – Psalm 27:10, ESV
99. Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. – Colossians 3:13, ESV
100. “My spirit is broken; my days are extinct; the graveyard is ready for me. Surely there are mockers about me, and my eye dwells on their provocation. “Lay down a pledge for me with yourself; who is there who will put up security for me? Since you have closed their hearts to understanding, therefore you will not let them triumph. He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property— the eyes of his children will fail. – Job 17:1-5, ESV

Last Thoughts… 

Although the world is filled with hardships that challenge our willingness to be those that imitate Christ, we must continue to have the mindset to overcome and persevere. We are not living this life of faith just for ourselves, but for our loved ones as well, for our lives must reflect the heart of God for others to be able to see His goodness. By exemplifying God’s qualities within our own households and in our families, we are able to encourage one another to overcome the world and put God’s commands into practice. 

See our list of the best Bible stories for children you should teach your kids today!