Some days I go through my normal routine - eating beneficial and neutral food and exercising - hardly giving a thought to the BTD. Other days I'm faced with tough BTD decisions. Yesterday was one of those days.

I attended a yearbook workshop with some students. To be honest, I'm not ready to think about school, but a certain amount of planning has to happen during the summer. Lunch was included in the workshop. I assumed it would probably be sandwiches; so yesterday morning I packed a bag of trail mix (walnuts, pumpkin seeds, almonds and raisins). If lunch was a sandwich, I'd eat the meat out of the bread and have the trail mix on the side. If I was lucky and they served a Type O lunch, I could have the trail mix late in the afternoon as I drove home.

When I opened my box lunch there was nothing (emphasize NO thing) that I could eat. There is a local franchise run by a Christian family. They care for their employees (they're even closed on Sunday so their employees can attend church), they keep their restaurants clean, and treat their customers well. But they use MSG in all their entrees. The box lunch was from this restaurant. I had a big white bun surrounding a chicken patty coated with bread crumbs and MSG. I also had a bag of high fat, high salt Fritos and a brownie. I ate my trail mix and drank a bottle of water.

On the way home I stopped at the grocery store. All the stores in my area carry frozen hamburger patties. All of them are high fat except one. These particular sirloin burgers have no additives and are very lean. The store was out of them and the UPC tag was gone from the freezer shelf.

I had a suspicion that they had been discontinued, and my natural inclination was to begin to get irritated. However I am trying to be more disciplined and remember that "All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28) I spoke kindly to one of the grocers.

While he was in the office checking the computer, I searched the shelf again and I found a new product. "HEB Natural Angus Beef Patties. No added hormones ever. No antibiotics ever, Always vegetarian fed, No additives or preservatives." It is the same price as the sirloin burgers! It is also available in 1 pound ground beef pouches.

The grocer came out apologizing; the sirloin was discontinued. "No problem," I said. "I have found something I like better." I showed him the package and asked how long they had carried it. It turns out to be a new product that has only been on the self a month or six weeks. Instead of being irritated, I was blessed.