10 Verses to Give Your Kids

Our kids need God’s Word.

Daily. Desperately.

Through family devotions, the example of your personal study, kids programs at your church… they need to know God’s Word and given verses as tools to apply to their own lives.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 says, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ⁵Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷Impress 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. ⁸Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.”

The years with kids are precious, fleeting and must be saturated with Words from the Voice that truly matters.

There are too many other voices trying to grab their attention…

This is obviously not an exhaustive list.

I hope this list is just a starting point for you as you begin to give God’s Word to your kids.

I hope that this list inspires you to create another list… and another list.

Dig into the Word and ask God to lead you to specific verses that will directly effect your children at their specific point of need.

For our girls it is while they are at school.

Going to school in another country is tough stuff. And our girls needed scripture, even though they didn’t realize it, to take to school with them.

I have no doubt that the power of God’s Word will speak to them in ways that I can not.

Hebrews 4:12 says, “¹²For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

It will pierce to the places that only the Holy Spirit can reach and help them in ways that only God is able.

And it will speak to your kids too.

1. Philippians 4:13 “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

2. Isaiah 26:3 “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.”

3. Psalm 9:9-10 “The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.”

4. Psalm 7:17 “I will give thanks to the Lord…”

5. Ephesians 6:7 “Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men…”

6. 2 Peter 3:14 “…make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.”

7. Luke 12:22 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.”

8. Matthew 22:37-39 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”

9. Leviticus 25:18 “Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land.”

10. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

As I glanced through my Bible to find these verses, I see oh so many more…

Small phrases… long passages… key values… important virtues… sweet promises

Proverbs is full of life lessons.

James reminds us of the terror of the tongue.

God’s Word is exactly what our kids need for every situation they face.

We must teach them to seek out God’s Word for their lives.

And as we teach them scripture, we must teach them to pray.

A simple, favorite scripture to imprint upon my children’s hearts is the well-known Serenity Prayer:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

This prayer has been printed and put by their bedsides, stuck in their favorite book, stuffed in their backpack for school.