The best Bible verses for parenting (ESV) include passages about God's love, strength, and guidance. This page features 15+ carefully curated Scripture passages for parenting (ESV), each selected for its relevance and depth. Read, save, and share the perfect verse for your situation.
"For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in."Psalms 27:10
"“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them,"Deuteronomy 21:18
"who said of his father and mother, ‘I regard them not’; he disowned his brothers and ignored his children. For they observed your word and kept your covenant."Deuteronomy 33:9
"“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple."Luke 14:26
"Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel,"Mark 10:29
"And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life."Matthew 19:29
"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
"And consider today (since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it), consider the discipline of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm,"Deuteronomy 11:2
"If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons."Hebrews 12:8
"For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD;"Isaiah 30:9
"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?"Hebrews 12:7
"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?"Hebrews 12:9
"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."Hebrews 12:10
Translations differ in what they optimise for. Some follow the original wording closely at the cost of a natural English sentence; others read smoothly and make interpretive choices to get there. Neither is wrong, but they produce noticeably different verses.
Each of the 15 verses below is shown in the translation you asked for, and every verse links to a page comparing all six side by side — which is usually the fastest way to see where the translators disagreed.
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The most-cited Bible verses for parenting (ESV) are Psalms 27:10, Deuteronomy 21:18, Proverbs 1:8. This page collects 15 of them, each with its full passage, context and the text in six translations.
Read the verse in its surrounding passage before you use it — a verse that fits in isolation sometimes says something different in context. Compare two translations where the wording is unclear, and pick for the person who will read it rather than for the theme.
Scripture returns to parenting (ESV) across both testaments rather than settling it in one passage, which is why the verses on this page do not all say the same thing. Read together they give a fuller answer than any single verse does.
There is no single best translation. The NIV and NLT read most naturally and communicate well to someone outside the church; the ESV and NASB stay closer to the original wording; the KJV carries the phrasing most people recognise. Every verse here links to a page showing all six side by side.
More than any page can list. This one carries the 15 that are most often turned to for parenting (ESV), chosen so each stands on its own and links through to the full chapter it belongs to.