12 Bible Verses for Mother's Day

Mother's Day is one of the few days the Church explicitly honors a calling Scripture honors throughout. These verses are for mothers in every season — new moms, tired moms, moms of grown kids, moms who lost a child, women who mothered without giving birth. Read them as honor. Read them as prayer.

1. 1.

   Proverbs 31:25–28

   "Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her."

   The Proverbs 31 mother isn't perfect — she's clothed in strength and laughs at what's ahead. Her kids notice.

2. 2.

   Proverbs 31:30

   "Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised."

   The praise that lasts isn't for the surface. It's for the woman whose roots are in God.

3. 3.

   Exodus 20:12

   "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you."

   Honoring her isn't optional. It's one of the ten God carved in stone.

4. 4.

   Proverbs 1:8–9

   "Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck."

   A mother's teaching is a crown — something her kids wear long after the lessons end.

5. 5.

   1 Samuel 1:27

   "For this child I prayed, and the LORD has granted me my petition that I made to him."

   Hannah received Samuel as God's sovereign answer to long prayer. Every mother who has begged God for a child — or for a child's return to Him — stands in her line.

6. 6.

   Isaiah 66:13

   "As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem."

   God uses motherhood as His own picture of comfort. That's how holy the calling is.

7. 7.

   Proverbs 31:20

   "She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy."

   A godly mother's reach goes past her own kids. She raises hands that serve.

8. 8.

   Titus 2:3–5

   "Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled."

   Motherhood is meant to be passed down. The older mom is the next mom's teacher.

9. 9.

   Psalm 127:3

   "Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward."

   Children are God's gift to a mother — and a mother is His gift to them.

10. 10.

    2 Timothy 1:5

    "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."

    Faith is often passed mother-to-child. Yours may be your mother's prayers answered.

11. 11.

    Proverbs 31:11–12

    "The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life."

    The trust she's earned is one of her greatest credentials. Trust her back.

12. 12.

    1 Thessalonians 2:7

    "But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children."

    Paul couldn't find a better picture of tenderness than a mother nursing her child.

Happy Mother's Day to every woman who's mothered someone in Jesus' name. Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.