You know, when you see this picture, a lot of you will say "wow, that's so cute! they're literally perfect. #goals" But it's been on my heart lately to be real. Social media is such a cool avenue to keep people in the loop about life but I think it's not really about that at all. It's become more about how you take 20 tries to get the right angle, vsco it up, spend 36 minutes finding the most engaging three line caption and hope for the pictures to reel in all the likes and affirming comments. Because honestly, we want to be accepted and approved. We constantly all search for validation, for meaningful people to say we are good enough, worthy enough, gorgeous enough. What's behind and underneath and between our posts though? We are struggling, fighting, retreating, losing, fearing, and living non-edited, real-people, tear-stricken, exhausting, unfulfilling, day to day lives. Yet we highlight and document and spotlight our beautiful moments and hope people take that as the real us. So here's food for thought - guess what's in between the pics of me and my incredibly dashing and heartwarming man? It's not always roses and butterflies, cheesing-hard smiles, love, laughter, grace upon grace, balance, forgiveness. What's actually in between the cute captions and immaculately wonderful photographs are some hard times, stress, the push of work and school, time-management, greasy hair and stinky feet, starved bellies from under eating due to busyness, miscommunication and sometimes low investment emotionally and spiritually. But you don't see that, of course. Guys, when will we be real and say hey - yeah, life is great and I love sharing about it with my sick pictures and cool edits, but here's the real me. The real US. The real inside story behind the scenes. Let's be real for a moment. People, circumstances, life stages, faith, and relationships all have brilliantly wonderful parts to them. But they also have difficult parts too. So don't just get caught up in the scrolling and comparing and judging. Because the same people that are your #goals are having bad hair days, hard points in their relationship, and times where they snap at those they love. So if you mess up, can't get the right lighting, hate your smile with teeth, think you're unworthy to post a makeup-less selfie or whatever your insecurity is .. just pause and be real. What you see on instagram or facebook or snapchat is most likely the prettiest and most glorified part of someone's day, week or month. Don't worry guys. It's ok to struggle. Be honest and wrestle in the struggle a bit. Talk it out, figure it out, hash it out. But be REAL. Search to be authentic - don't park at the extremes of "woe is me" or "wow I'm the absolute best." Commit to finding a middle ground and just be humble and honest.