7-day plan: Parents and Children
What the Bible says about honoring parents, raising children, and families that break.
One passage a day, with a question to think it over. Your progress stays on this device, no account needed.
Day 1 · Honor Your Father and Mother
The commandment about father and mother, with a promise of long days
Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long on the land that YHWH your Elohim is giving you.
Exodus 20:12 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
What does this passage say about what God is like?
Day 2 · Teaching the Children
God's words are repeated to children at home and on the road
Hear, Israel: YHWH our Elohim, YHWH is one. You shall love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These words that I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. You shall repeat them to your children and talk about 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.
Deuteronomy 6:4–9 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
Which word or phrase stays with you, and why?
Day 3 · Correcting with Love
Whoever holds back the rod hates his son; whoever loves him gives correction
Whoever holds back his rod hates his son, but whoever loves him eagerly gives him correction.
Proverbs 13:24 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
What situation in your life does this passage speak to?
Day 4 · Children, a Gift
Children are an inheritance and a reward from YHWH
Look, an inheritance from YHWH are children, a reward is the fruit of the womb. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of youth. Happy is the man who has filled his quiver with them; they will not be put to shame when they speak with enemies in the gate.
Psalms 127:3–5 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
What does it invite you to do today, even something small?
Day 5 · Families That Fail
Jacob's favoritism toward Joseph stirs his brothers' hatred
Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a long robe. His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and they hated him and could not speak to him in peace.
Genesis 37:3–4 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
How do you handle envy when someone receives more attention than you?
Day 6 · Honor Your Father and Mother
Paul repeats the commandment and also speaks to fathers
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and your mother —which is the first commandment with a promise— so that it may go well with you and you may live long on the earth. And fathers, do not provoke to anger your children, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Ephesians 6:1–4 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
Paul asks for prayer at all times and for all the saints (v. 18). Whom will you pray for today, and at what moment of the day?
Day 7 · Teaching the Children
When your child asks, you tell how God brought them out of Egypt
When your son asks you tomorrow, saying, “What are the testimonies, the statutes, and the rules that YHWH our Elohim has commanded you?” then you shall say to your son, “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and YHWH brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand. YHWH worked signs and wonders, great and harmful, against Egypt, against Pharaoh, and against all his house, before our eyes. And us he brought out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land that he swore to our fathers. And YHWH commanded us to carry out all these statutes, to fear YHWH our Elohim, for our good all the days, to keep us alive, as it is this day. And it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to carry out all this commandment before YHWH our Elohim, as he has commanded us.”
Deuteronomy 6:20–25 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
Looking back over the week, what changed in how you see this topic?