Throughout my journey of singleness, I have felt such an urge to discuss this phenomenon of relationship goals.

Consequently I decided to Google the wide spread affair.

Like many others I'm sure, we're all itching for the perfect love story.

Admit it ladies, we're glued to the coach Monday nights for the bachelorette-anxiously awaiting those perfect adorable moments.

We feed off of it! It's honesty, if we're being real, our drug.

Which is why I'm not surprised at what I found once I googled such a thing.

Not to mention all the smilingly endless amount of couples that besiege our social accounts-yay for wedding season.

When you're in a period of singleness, it's easy to get immersed into this industry of "relationship goals."...but what exactly is the goal?

What I wish someone would have told me...

OKAY!-listen up. There are an estimated 7.4 billion plus people in this world!

Which means, ladies, there are a lot of men who can tell you you're beautiful, who will take you out to dinner, buy you fancy things, and ultimately make you feel like an absolute princess. Does that necessarily mean you should spend your forever with him?-hmmm.

Where's my discernment? Well, I've dated that guy.

The guy who made me FEEL good about myself. However it ended there. I had a picture perfect "relationship goals" and it was the most empty season of my life.

I have many close friends who've dated those guys. The relationships that are founded on fun, parties, and picture perfect moments...#EMPTY!

I wish someone would have told me it's not enough to date "a good guy". It's not enough to portray to the world you've got your life together through these perfectly filtered captured moments.

Because life is hard and those pictures never once portrayed the struggles a couple actually encounters-behind the scenes.

Date the guy who

If you haven't already been told: you are more than a fancy dinner and movie night. You are definitely more than Netflix and chill. The depth of who you are is so much more.

When you date, date the guy who not only knows that but cherishes, protects, and fights for that. Fights for all of you, the mess and the beauty.

The guy who not only takes you to dinner but takes care of your soul. A man who spoils you in the way he leads the relationship. A man who knows how important it is in the way he carries himself and how easy it can be to fall into the ways of this world.

A man who leads you to the foot of the cross...not the door of his bedroom.

Am I saying dating can't be fun or beautifully filtered? Absolutely not. However your standards shouldn't stop there!

Relationship goals should go beyond what life portrays superficially.

You're worthy of a relationship that's everything you could have ever dreamed possible.

Wouldn't you want to date a guy who knows your heart, because he calls to the one who created you?

The goals we should be encompassing to the world is the good, the bad, the ugly, and all the in between. The imperfectly real components of life. The beautifully broken souls who CHOOSE to glorify one another, in all the unfiltered moments.

Relationship goals:

It's not a perfect picture. It's two beautifully broken people deciding to accept and love one another, everyday.

It's not a fancy night out. It's countless nights out even the messy ones with conversations that aren't easy to have.

It's not the gifts you get or give. It's what you give each and everyday, by choosing to fight for one another when it's not so easy.

It shouldn't be perfectly filtered because we're all beautifully flawed, so let's choose to keep it real.