Counting your gains against your losses

Tonight at the Rock's college group we had Senior appreciation night, where all of the seniors shared their bits of wisdom and insight that they've gained through their university experience.
I was speaking afterward with some girls, and one of our seniors brought up this concept of counting gains against losses. I've definitley looked at the pros and cons of a situation, but not very often do I look back and count my gains against my loses and base my future decisions accordingly. Of course I've made choices based on things that have happened to me, but to honestly look back and recount every aspect and try to move forward from there is to encompass much more than just a slight glance back. I'm talking about fully looking at every aspect of your life, and seeing where you gained things, and where things just fell apart, regardless of whose fault it was.

To look at every aspect meaning not just my schools scheduling choices, or how many units to carry. Which kinda has to do with how my grades are, which plays into how often do I hang out with people. My social life, who did I gain and who did I lose and how has it effected me. How is my family life, what have I gained and what have I lost. How is my walk with God, and how has it changed and what have I gained, and what have I lost. I got especially sad thinking about the friend part, because its never a good feeling to loose touch with friends. But a positive note was pointed out, that the friends that remained, were friends who continually built her up in Christ, and encouraged her so.

In my own life I can tell who has always been encouraging and who has loved me, and who has built me up and encouraged me. And then I can tell people who like me for other reasons that I feel like are a loss.

I really appreciated her invitation to count gains and losses against each other, and to look back and reflect. My time spent in the College group at the Rock has been full of so much growth! I've been a person who was sad all the time, to a person in a small group that changed my life, to that small group moving leaders and turning into a small church practically, to eventually being a small group leader myself.

The changes that I have made in my own life, and the gains I've taken on have been such a blessing. While at times over whelming, and showing me that there are still many areas of my life to work over I'm realizing that I'm shaping up to be something after all. It's most exciting to see, and it has been so exciting to be used to share what I've learned.

so far:
gains > losses