'Hard' in the Bible

Fathers, do not provoke or irritate or exasperate your children [with demands that are trivial or unreasonable or humiliating or abusive; nor by favoritism or indifference; treat them tenderly with lovingkindness], so they will not lose heart and become discouraged or unmotivated [with their spirits broken].

For I testify for him that he has worked strenuously for you and for the believers in Laodicea and those in Hierapolis.