impatience

One of my hugest (not a word but I do make them up sometimes!!) challenges is my lack of patience in many areas. My worst area is with my daughter. I think when God gave me a daughter, He wanted to build my character and shape me to be a better, stronger and more patient person than I was. My daughter is 'high maintenance'. She is lovely in many ways; intelligent, energetic, happy, funny, has many interests and is quite talented. But she is also hyper, fidgety, loud, attention getting and boisterous. She gets ready slowly, eats slowly and is somewhat irresponsible. Pretty typical for a preteen but still drives me crazy!!! I am not a good spiritual leader for her. I feel very limited in my home due to my husband's dislike and hostile behaviors regarding my faith but that is no excuse. I do talk about God with her and encourage her to believe Him, pray to Him and rely on Him but it's not enough. We don't read devotions or the Bible together. She attends church, volunteers there and is in the youth group which all helps. I want my daughter to be saved one day. I think she will be. She really does believe and I know Jesus is important to her but she is so worldly and it scares me. Anyway, I often can't stand being with her because she's half nuts. Ha I say in jest but a little bit is true. If we give her positive attention she goes nuts...as in give her an inch and she will take a mile. She is an only child and we are older and crabbier. Yes even I am. She craves the attention but she needs so much of it. And yet she is not a needy child. Just wants her parents to love her and each other. She knows we are not happily married. It's really sad. Well this is a good spot to stop as the privacy ended.