Among our friends in our Sunday School class are a missionary to Eastern Europe and his wife, who is from the country where he serves. They are in the States for a year while he gets his masters degree; then they will return to the mission field. They are a delightful couple, and they invited us to their home for lunch on Sunday. I knew as soon as we accepted the invitation, that avoids would be unavoidable. Her English is limited, and where most of the time I can briefly explain to someone why I don't eat wheat, I knew in this case I could not make her understand. I decided that it was more important for me to be a gracious friend and guest than to offend her.

She served two dishes from her native country. One was a breaded chicken with cheese. The other she called surprise salad. I must have the recipe!! It was not only delicious, but think it was mostly beneficial, though I couldn't identify all of the ingredients. I guess she was afraid that we might not like her native foods, so she also fixed lasagna and garlic bread. For dessert she served a very light cake filled with raspberries and cream.

If I had served my own plate, I would have heaped on the salad, and had small portions of the avoid foods. However, our plates were served and passed to us. As long as I was going to eat avoids, I made up my mind to enjoy food that I hadn't eaten in ages, and I did.

I feel guilty, and I go hard on myself on the rare occasions that I eat avoids at home. I give myself a reprimand if I am out and I choose an avoid when a neutral or beneficial is available. Being a gracious guest is another matter entirely. Besides - it could be years before I eat another plate of lasagna!