On Mother’s Day, we pause to say thank you to mothers, who nurture, care, and provide—often sacrificially—for their children in order to create a brighter future for generations to come. But the spirit of Mother’s Day was never meant to be reserved to a single day of the year. God commands us to honor our mothers throughout the year. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12).
For many, Mother’s Day is filled with heartache. Some have lost a biological mother, or their relationship is estranged. Others are childless and grieve never experiencing the joy of motherhood. And while the Bible tells us that “children are a heritage from the Lord” (Psalm 127:3), it also reminds us that motherhood can come in all forms. “The children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married” (Isaiah 54:1). Ruth honored her mother-in-law as she would her own mother (Ruth 1:16-17), and while on the cross, Jesus presented John to His mother to alleviate her grief: “Behold, your son” (John 19:26-27). Mothers of all kinds are worthy of the honor we give on Mother’s Day.
Throughout Scriptures, God also uses motherhood as an example of His love for us. “As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you” (Isaiah 66:13). And He commands us, as His followers, to take care of both widows and orphans. “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction” (James 1:27).
Faith can be passed down from mother to child, from generation to generation, through loving mothers, biological and non-biological. Grandparents, aunts, adoptive parents, and spiritual mother figures in the church all play a critical role in raising the next generation. As women, we all can nurture someone in our lives—just as others have cared for us.
On Mother’s Day, we want to thank mothers of all kinds. You are loved. You are cherished. Today, we honor you.
25 Scriptures from the Bible about Prayer
Proverbs 31:30-31 – Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.
John 16:21 – When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.
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.
Psalm 127:3 – Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.
Proverbs 11:16a – A gracious woman gets honor.
Isaiah 54:1 – “Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,” says the Lord.
Proverbs 31:17 — She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong.
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.
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.
James 1:27 – Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
Luke 1:30-33 — And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
Psalm 139:13 – For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
John 19:26-27 – When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
Isaiah 49:15 – Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.
1 Thessalonians 2:7 – But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.
Isaiah 66:13 – As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
Luke 1:45 – And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.
Proverbs 31:26, 28 – She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue … Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her.
Psalm 113:9 – He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord!
Luke 2:6-7 – And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
Genesis 17:16 – I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.
Proverbs 22:6 — Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Ruth 1:16-17 – But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”
Luke 2:51 – And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.
Proverbs 14:1 – The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down.
Scripture is quoted from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®). ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.
Give a Gift
Whoever brings blessing will be enriched,
and one who waters will himself be watered.
Proverbs 11:25