Most promises in the Bible are not made to one person in a vacuum. Look closely and you will see children standing behind the parents, and grandchildren behind them.
That is one of the most comforting things about the promises of God for family. When God made a covenant, He kept saying words like seed, children and generations. He was thinking about the people you love before you were born.
This page walks through those promises in the order they were spoken, from Abraham's tent to a prison in Greece. Then it turns to the people in your family: moms, teenagers, graduates, and parents praying for a child who has wandered.
A promise that keeps passing down
Here is how the promise to parents and children shows up across the Bible. Read down the table and you can watch it widen.
| Verse | Who spoke | Who heard it | What it says about children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Genesis 17:7 | God | Abraham, at ninety nine | The covenant is for his descendants too, for ever |
| Deuteronomy 7:9 | Moses | Israel, before entering Canaan | God keeps covenant to a thousand generations |
| Psalm 103:17 | David | Israel in worship | His righteousness reaches children's children |
| Isaiah 54:13 | God, through Isaiah | Zion, the people of God | Children taught by the Lord, with great peace |
| Acts 2:39 | Peter | The crowd at Pentecost | The promise is to you and to your children |
| Acts 16:31 | Paul and Silas | The jailer at Philippi | Salvation offered to him and his house |
Abraham: a God to you and your children
Abraham was ninety nine years old and still had no son with Sarah when God renamed him and made this covenant:
And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
Genesis 17:7 (KJV)
Notice how many times the children are mentioned in one sentence. Thee and thy seed. Their generations. To thy seed after thee. God was not just signing on to be Abraham's God. He was signing on to be the God of the family that would come from him, and the next year Isaac was born. This promise is in Genesis, so it is part of Book One of this series.
A thousand generations
Forty years after Egypt, Moses stood on the plains of Moab and reminded a new generation who their God was.
Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
Deuteronomy 7:9 (KJV)
A thousand generations is far longer than all of recorded history. Moses was saying that God's faithfulness does not wear out from parent to child. The verse also names who it is for: those who love Him and keep His commandments. Your faith is not a private matter. It is the start of something your great-great-grandchildren can stand on. Deuteronomy falls in Book Two of the series.
From everlasting to everlasting, unto children's children
Psalm 103 is one of David's songs of thanks. After he lists how God forgives, heals and redeems, he looks at how short a human life is, like grass that is here today and gone tomorrow. Then he sets God's mercy right beside it:
But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children; To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.
Psalm 103:17-18 (KJV)
Your life is short. His mercy is not. And the mercy that rests on you is meant to keep flowing to your grandchildren. If you are a grandparent, this is your verse. The prayers you pray now may still be bearing fruit long after you are gone.
Psalm 103 comes after Psalm 89, so it falls in a later book of the series.
Peace for your children
And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.
Isaiah 54:13 (KJV)
Isaiah spoke this to the people of God pictured as a city that had been left desolate, like a woman with no children. God promised to rebuild her and fill her with sons and daughters, and then He said these children would be taught by the Lord Himself. Jesus quoted the first half of this verse in John 6:45 when He spoke of everyone who comes to Him.
For a parent, this is a precious picture. You are not your child's only teacher. God Himself takes part. The peace He promises your children is not just a calm house. It is the deep wholeness that comes from knowing Him.
To you and to your children: Pentecost and a prison
Peter's first sermon
On the day of Pentecost, thousands heard Peter preach about Jesus. Cut to the heart, they asked what to do. Peter told them to repent and be baptized, and then he said:
For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the LORD our God shall call.
Acts 2:39 (KJV)
The promise there is the gift of the Holy Spirit, and Peter made sure parents knew it was meant for their children too, and for people far away.
A jailer's whole house
In Philippi, Paul and Silas were beaten and locked in stocks. At midnight they were singing when an earthquake opened every door. The jailer, sure his prisoners had escaped, nearly took his own life. Paul stopped him. Trembling, the man asked what he must do to be saved.
And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Acts 16:31 (KJV)
Read on and you see how it happened. Paul and Silas spoke the word of the Lord to everyone in the house, and the whole household believed and was baptized that night. The promise opened the door. Each person walked through it.
Proverbs 22:6: wisdom, not a guarantee
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6 (KJV)
This may be the most quoted verse among Christian parents, and it is good counsel. Teach your children the ways of God early, and it tends to stay with them. But it is a proverb. Proverbs tell us how life usually goes. They are not contracts.
If you have a grown son or daughter who has walked away from God, please hear this: it does not mean you failed, and it does not mean your faith was weak. Children make their own choices, even children raised in loving homes. Keep praying. Keep the door open. In the story Jesus told of the lost son, the father saw his boy coming while he was still a long way off, and he ran to meet him.
Bible promises for moms
When God wanted to describe His own tender care, more than once He reached for the picture of a mother.
As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
Isaiah 66:13 (KJV)
And to a people who felt forgotten, He asked if a nursing mother could forget her baby, then said that even if she could, yet will I not forget thee. If you are a mom who pours out comfort all day, these verses say you are allowed to receive it too. For Mother's Day, Proverbs 31:28 honors a mother whose children rise up and call her blessed.
Bible promises for teens and graduates
For teenagers
Paul wrote to his young friend Timothy, who was leading a church while still young enough that some people looked down on him: Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers. That is not a promise, but it is an invitation. God does not wait until you are grown to use you.
There is also a promise in one of God's commands to children. The fifth commandment, to honor your father and mother, comes with a promise attached: that your days may be long. Paul repeats it for the church in Ephesians 6 and calls it the first commandment with promise.
For graduates
Graduation is full of big choices: school, work, where to live, who to trust. Two verses fit well:
I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.
Psalm 32:8 (KJV)
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6 (KJV)
Psalm 32 is a psalm of David and sits in Book Three, coming next. Proverbs comes in a later book.
Read them one at a time
Book Two covers the promises from Numbers through Esther, the part of the Bible that takes in Deuteronomy, where Moses spoke of the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy to a thousand generations. Each promise has its own page with the King James verse, who it was spoken to, the condition, what it meant then, what it means for you and a prayer to say out loud.