Dirty, rotten, scoundrels!

My kids have set up a construction zone just outside the back door. We are building an addition, and so there is plenty of dirt for them to dig in. They have all their little bulldozers, dump trucks and cranes lined up and ready to go as soon as they step outside.
Well, someone had the great idea to add water to the construction site, because mud was more fun to dig in. While this may be true, mud is much messier to clean up than nice, dry dirt. Dirt just brushes off with your hand, and you can go inside the house. Not so with mud.
I went into the kitchen to start making dinner when I discovered the mud. The kids had first attempted their clean-up in my new sink. My blue counters were now brown. I noticed some little brown streams of water running down the cabinet doors. My floor was spotted with little muddy puddles. These puddles led to little drips of mud that led all the way to the back door.
After a bit of fussing on my part, I got around to sweeping and scrubbing both the kitchen and dining room floors as well as my counters. I heaved a sigh of relief that my new kitchen was now mud free, and went up to the bathroom. Surprise!!!! My tub was covered in a thin film of reddish brown mud. I guess the clean-up attempt at the sink didn't do a good enough job, so they moved on to the bathtub! What a mess! I must confess, I did a little more fussing after seeing that tub! Would the kids never learn to clean up after themselves??!!
The answer to that question is of course they will....Eventually! Until that time, I guess I will just resign myself to the fact that I am the resident maid in our house! I will have to clean up after the messes my children make many, many times, no matter how weary I am of doing so.
How tired God must get of cleaning up after my messes! Often, they are the same messes that I keep making, over and over again! Yet, He manages to clean my messes with such loving patience and kindness, that it shames me to think of my complaining attitude! Kids aren't born already trained. They need a tender, loving, and very patient hand to teach them. God has blessed me with the privilege of training these kids for Him, and I manage to find reasons to grumble and complain about their little messes! Really, what fun is playing in the dirt if you can't get dirty! It's the heart issues that I need to be concerned with, not a little mud on my kitchen floor.
Thank you God for blessing me with such wonderful kids! Help me to look deeper than the dirt on their outside, and help them clean up the "dirt" on the inside....where it really matters!