Hosea and Joel are two of the twelve short books at the end of the Old Testament called the “minor prophets” (minor because they’re short, not because they matter less). Hosea preached to the northern kingdom of Israel, often called Ephraim, in the years before Assyria conquered it. The Lord used Hosea’s own family as a living parable: Hosea’s wife broke her marriage promises and left, and the Lord told Hosea to go and bring her home (Hosea 1–3). That’s how the Lord felt about Israel. They had broken their covenant with Him, and He still wanted them back. For 9–11s, keep the marriage details simple: covenants are promises of loyal love, and the Lord keeps His side even when we don’t.
Hosea’s tenderest verses show the Lord as a parent teaching a toddler to walk, “taking them by their arms” and drawing them “with bands of love” (11:3–4). He asks, “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?” (11:8) and promises, “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely” (14:4). He declares “there is no saviour beside me” and promises to “ransom them from the power of the grave” (13:4, 14), fulfilled in Jesus Christ’s Atonement and Resurrection. Hosea also complains that Israel’s goodness is “as a morning cloud” that burns off by noon (6:4), and that the Lord wants mercy more than sacrifices (6:6). Jesus quoted that verse when people criticized Him for eating with sinners (Matthew 9:13).
Joel describes wave after wave of locusts stripping the land bare (Joel 1:4–12), then a call to “turn ye even to me with all your heart” and to “rend your heart, and not your garments” (2:12–13). People tore their clothes to show sorrow; the Lord wanted a changed heart, not a show. When they turned back, He sent rain and full harvests and promised, “I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten” (2:25), a picture of how the Savior restores what sin and hard times take from us.
Joel 2:28–29 promises the Lord will “pour out my spirit upon all flesh” and that sons and daughters will prophesy. Peter quoted it at Pentecost (Acts 2:16–18). In 1823 the angel Moroni quoted it to Joseph Smith and said it was not yet fulfilled but soon would be (Joseph Smith—History 1:41). The Restoration and the gift of the Holy Ghost are part of that outpouring. Your 11-year-olds are about to receive more responsibility, and the Spirit is how they’ll know what to do: not always dramatic, usually quiet and steady.