[CatQuilt]

In a country like ours, it is no great sacrifice to give up meat, readily available the other 6 days of the week.

That's true but it seems like it's Friday when a good steak is most tempting... Or you go out to dinner with friends to a nice steakhouse or you and some friends decide to get a pizza and everyone else wants pepperoni...

So...you mortify yourself by looking different in front of your friends.

[annalex]

Yes. That is the spiritual value of it, at public meals. Same with blessing oneself in a restaurant.

[ArrogantBustard]

Or you go out to dinner with friends to a nice steakhouse and order the grilled salmon.

Perhaps not a big sacrifice ... except that the idiots in the kitchen don't know fish anywhere near as well as they know beef. And it provides a small opportunity for a small witness to Christ. Never pass up an opportunity ... even the small ones.