In the book, Lessons From a Sheep Dog, Phillip Keller discusses how he begins to train Lass, his rescue collie, with simple one word commands and rewards. As Lass begins to trust and obey Phillip, he moves on to harder commands and hand signals. Lass’s response becomes one of joy at pleasing and serving her master and dog and master become friends. God also works with us to build a relationship of trust and obedience. As we become obedient in small simple ways, God begins to give us more difficult tasks to build our trust in Him and to build our relationship with Him. God calls us “friends” and reveals His will for our lives as we build this relationship with Him. (John 15: 14-15 NKJV)