RE Verse reading–Hosea 11:1-11, 14:1-2 (day five) “How can I give you up, Ephraim?. . .my heart is changed within me” (vs. 8) Parenting is hard work. There are many hard choices. Is punishment required? If so, what kind and how long? Is leniency better? For me, the hardest part was often my own inner conflict re. what was best. It is a strange consolation that God knows this same inner turmoil. In Hosea 11:8, He says that His heart is “changed” which translates the word haphak or “overturned, upset”. While I don’t know how an infinitely wise God can experience inner turmoil, I do know that my willingness to embrace the discomfort, the inner conflict, even the risk of making the wrong choice was part of what it meant to love my sons. We deserve rebuke. He prefers to bless. We do not make it easy for Him but He does not give up. He loves us enough to do the hard work.
