LOOKING AT THE MASTER

A pastor once told his congregation about a man who had a dog, and the man was trying to train his dog to be obedient. And what he would do was to take a large piece of meat--good, red, juicy meat that dogs would normally like to eat--and he would put it in the middle of the floor near the dog, and then he would say, "No," to the dog. Well, the first few times the "No," was an irrelevant suggestion, the dog proceeded to grab the meat and got wailed on, and after a few such results when he said, "No," the dog no longer attacked the meat.

But what the man noticed was this: after a while, the dog never looked at the meat anymore. When he put the meat on the floor, the dog never for a moment took his eyes off his master. Seemingly feeling that if he did so the temptation to disobey would be too great, so he just maintained a steadfast gaze into the face of his master.