18 Bible Verses About the Blessings of Family

Psalm 127:3

“Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him.”

Reflection: The psalm opens with “Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain”, and the house it goes on to describe is a family. Children are called a heritage and a reward, words that place them among the things God gives, not things a family earns by toil. Verses 4-5 compare children born in one’s youth to arrows in a warrior’s hand: “Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.”

Psalm 128:3

“Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.”

Reflection: Psalm 128 is a song of ascents that begins “Blessed are all who fear the LORD.” Verse 3 pictures that blessing at home: a wife as a fruitful vine and children as young olive trees around the table. Verse 4 names it outright, “this will be the blessing for the man who fears the LORD”, and the psalm ends by wishing that he will “live to see your children’s children.”

Proverbs 17:6

“Children’s children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children.”

Reflection: The proverb runs in both directions: grandchildren are a crown to the old, and parents are the pride of their children. Psalm 128:6 voices the same hope as a wish: “May you live to see your children’s children.”

Genesis 12:2-3

“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Reflection: God speaks to Abram after telling him to leave “your father’s household” (12:1), and the promise is to make a new family into “a great nation.” The Hebrew word behind the NIV’s “peoples” in verse 3 is mishpachah, family or clan, which is why the King James Version reads “in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

Exodus 20:5b-6

“I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

Reflection: These lines close the commandment against making and worshipping images. Punishment reaches “to the third and fourth generation” of those who hate God, while love is shown “to a thousand generations” of those who love him. Deuteronomy 7:9 repeats the second half: God keeps “his covenant of love to a thousand generations.”

Psalm 78:4

“We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.”

Reflection: Asaph introduces a long history of Israel by promising not to hide it from the next generation. Verses 5-6 say God commanded the ancestors to teach their children, “so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.” Verse 7 gives the purpose: that they “would put their trust in God.”

Deuteronomy 6:6-7

“These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

Reflection: The command follows the Shema, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (6:4), and the call to love God with all the heart. Parents are to repeat those words at home, on the road, at bedtime and on waking. Later in the chapter (6:20-21) a son asks what the laws mean, and the answer is a story: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out.”

Joshua 24:15

“But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

Reflection: Joshua has assembled the tribes of Israel at Shechem (24:1) and asks them to choose between the LORD and the gods their ancestors served beyond the Euphrates River. Before they answer, he states his own household’s choice. The people reply in verse 18, “We too will serve the LORD.”

Proverbs 22:6

“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”

Reflection: The verse is a proverb, a saying about how things usually go, and it ties early training to later life: a child started on the right way keeps to it in old age. It describes what usually follows, and the verse itself makes no promise about a particular child.

Ephesians 6:4

“Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”

Reflection: Paul has just told children to obey their parents and quoted the commandment to honour father and mother, “the first commandment with a promise” (6:1-3). He then turns to fathers with a limit and a task: do not exasperate children, and bring them up “in the training and instruction of the Lord.” The parallel in Colossians 3:21 adds a reason: “Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.”

Matthew 19:14

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

Reflection: People brought children for Jesus to lay hands on them and pray, and the disciples rebuked them. Jesus overruled the disciples, said the kingdom of heaven belongs “to such as these”, and then placed his hands on the children (19:15). The scene follows directly after his teaching on marriage and divorce in Matthew 19:3-12.

Genesis 2:24

“That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.”

Reflection: The verse follows God’s words “It is not good for the man to be alone” (2:18) and the man’s greeting to the woman, “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (2:23). A man leaves his parents’ household and is united to his wife, and a new family begins. Jesus quotes the verse when asked about divorce (Matthew 19:5; Mark 10:7-8), and Paul quotes it in Ephesians 5:31.

Proverbs 18:22

“He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD.”

Reflection: The proverb calls a wife a good thing found and then traces the good back to God: the man who finds her “receives favor from the LORD.”

Ephesians 5:33

“However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”

Reflection: Paul has just quoted Genesis 2:24 and called the union of husband and wife “a profound mystery” that he applies to Christ and the church (5:31-32). Verse 33 brings the teaching back to ordinary marriages: each husband is to love his wife as himself, and each wife is to respect her husband.

Genesis 33:5

“Then Esau looked up and saw the women and children. ‘Who are these with you?’ he asked. Jacob answered, ‘They are the children God has graciously given your servant.’”

Reflection: Jacob had cheated his brother Esau and fled from him, and he now expects Esau to arrive with four hundred men (33:1). Instead Esau runs to meet him, embraces him and weeps. Asked who the women and children are, Jacob credits God with them, and a few verses later he says, “God has been gracious to me and I have all I need” (33:11).

Genesis 50:20

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

Reflection: After their father Jacob dies, Joseph’s brothers fear he will repay them for the wrongs they did him, and they send a message asking for forgiveness. Joseph weeps, refuses to put himself “in the place of God”, and says God turned their harm into the saving of many lives. Verse 21 shows what that meant for the family: “I will provide for you and your children.”

Luke 15:20

“So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”

Reflection: In Jesus’ parable, a younger son takes his share of the estate early, spends it, and comes home planning to ask to be a hired servant. The father sees him from a long way off and runs to him before he has said a word. The father’s reason for the feast is a family one: “this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (15:24).

Malachi 4:6

“He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”

Reflection: These are the closing words of Malachi, in which God promises to send Elijah “before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes” (4:5). The prophet’s work is to turn parents and children back toward each other. In Luke 1:17 the angel tells Zechariah that his son John will go “in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children.”