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. She laughs at the time to come… Her children rise up and call her blessed."

   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 Yahweh, she shall 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 which Yahweh your God gives you."

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

4. 4.

   Proverbs 1:8–9

   "My son, listen to your father's instruction, and don't forsake your mother's teaching; for they will be a garland to grace your head…"

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

5. 5.

   1 Samuel 1:27

   "I prayed for this child, and Yahweh has given me my petition which I asked of 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 will 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 stretches out her hand to the poor; yes, she extends 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… teach the younger women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sober minded, chaste, workers at home, kind…"

   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 of Yahweh. The fruit of the womb is his 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 the sincere faith that is in you, which lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and, I am persuaded, in you also."

    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 shall 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 cherishes 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 World English Bible (WEB), which is in the public domain.