My toddler pushes back on absolutely everything and I am out of patience by nine in the morning. Is there a better way to handle this?

“He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.”

Isaiah is writing to exiles who had been marched a long way and had nothing left. In the middle of a chapter about God's overwhelming power, the prophet reaches for a shepherd carrying lambs and going slowly for the sake of the ewes with young. The picture matters for you: God's strength expresses itself as patience with the small and the slow. That is the model you are copying.

“Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.”

Paul is closing a letter to a young, chaotic church in Thessalonica, and he sorts people by what they actually need. The unruly need warning, the fainthearted need comfort, the weak need holding up. Then comes the catch-all: be patient toward everyone. A toddler is all three categories at once, several times an hour, and Paul assumes patience is a learned skill rather than a temperament you either have or lack.