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I know exactly what you mean. Due to a horrific junior high experience, I suffered throughout my high school and college years from some major social anxiety issues. I had no friends, but longed desperately for some. I was just too terrified to even speak to people to have the opportunity to get to know them. I look back in prayer journals from that time and see requests such as “Help me say hi today if someone speaks to me.” Wow, now that’s pretty bad!!

And then God gave me the internet. People can say what they will about all the “bad things” on the internet, but there are some mighty good things on it too — and some mighty good people.

On the internet, I wasn’t face to face with these people. I could write instead of speak, and my anxieties vanished right away in that format. At last, after years of longing, I was able to develop relationships — close friendships with people all around the country, even a couple from other countries, that I never would have met if it weren’t for the internet.

And since I was able to get in and develop the friendship ahead of time through writing, I found that when I did meet these new friends face to face, the anxieties weren’t there — because these were already close friends and trustworthy.

God used these internet friends as one step along my journey to being truly free in Christ, free from the anxieties, and now, while I’m definitely still on the shy and quiet side of things, I’m a NORMAL quiet person and not plagued by anxieties that prevent me from leading a normal life.

Praise God for the internet, and the friendships He has given to us through it.

I too had a wonderful time and I hope that we can get together again soon. It was great getting to know y’all as a person not just a blog that I read.

That story was heartbreaking yet wonderful all at the same time. Thanks for sharing their story with us.

Thanks for sharing the brown shirt story.

Internet has truly been used for God’s glory …

During a year that encompassed unexpected transition and unwelcomed loneliness, the bloggin’ world helped me hold onto my joy.

Up until this past year, I lumped together those that formed relationships over the internet in the same category with those people seeking mail order brides.

I now stand corrected.

Some of my real life friends in Georgia, particularly those who are not into the bloggin’ thing, are ASTOUNDED that I would purchase a ticket to San Antonio for a chance to meet those who have unknowingly made me laugh out loud in a year where the tears outnumbered the smiles.

But, I figure it will be worth the effort to say thank you in person, even if it is through laptops, sitting right next to one another, in true blogger style.

Internet friends. We aren’t bloggers but we all met on the internet on the fan site for a certain country music singer. It’s amazing the friendships that can be built online. There is a freedom in just ‘talking’ to someone that you don’t really know. You can tell them anything because you won’t be seeing them at work, or church or the grocery store.

Our first meetup was in Dallas in Oct 2004. Several of us got together for a concert and to just hang out together. Since then there have been mini meetups of 2 or 3 women and a few large meetups, usually in Nashville.

Although not everyone shares the same religious beliefs, we have supported one another, prayed for one another, laughed together and cried together. They are the best bunch of women.

My only problem is that it is very hard for me to make real life friends. It’s so much easier online.

Great post, Sophie. I’m sure there were untold stories all over that arena of women meeting up and sharing life together. What an awesome story of the girls in the brown T’s, so heart-warming. And how wonderful of Beth to take time to meet & pray with them. I loved that!

It was really fun getting together with all of the B’ham girls & I hope we can do it again.

Rhoda

Yes! I met a dear friend online last year and got to meet in real life a couple of months ago. It was like we had known each other forever. She is a great encouragement to me, as I hope I am to her. I love the blogosphere!!

Okay…so I clicked over at your suggestion and then sat here and bawled. BAWLED. Great post, and so true, so true. Aside from all of the laughter and encouragement and love of God, I know that you PERSONALLY have made an indellible mark on how I cook butterbeans. Love ya.

Sweet. Sweet. Sweet.

I couldn’t even believe I started a blog. I am normally pretty private, but I felt lonely for fellowship with other female believers. This has proven to be a blessing for me - and an understanding that God made me to be relational! I honestly felt like something was wrong with me. Why was I not okay to be without friends? I have a husband, children and a relationship with God. Now I don’t feel that something is wrong…I am not spiritually or emotionally weak to need others…I’m NORMAL?!

Enjoyed meeting you too, Boo. Had a wonderful night last night. Y’all were great and my kids were home with my husband. That’s a double fun whammy. Still waiting for my personalized chopsticks, though. And the drum/birthday song.

Wow!! I loved reading the brwon tee shirts ladies.

I have met some amazing ladies on blog land. And in like 42 days we’ll meet face to face

can’t wait

I’ve met quite a few blogging buddies and though I can’t say I’m ever any less nervous at that first meeting, some wonderful and incredible friendships have been formed through these online relationships. All I can say is that God definitely works through this thing we call the blogosphere.

Amen, sister!

I blogged my way from lifelong atheism to Christianity, and one of the thing that really helped me along the way was the people I met through blogging. Three of my close friends in this area are gals I met through blogging, and I have a couple other good friends with whom I speak regularly in other areas of the country.

When I first started exploring Christianity I didn’t really know any Christians (not who were practicing, anyway), so I felt like a total fish out of water. It would have taken me a LONG time to feel part of Christianity had it not been for my blogging friends.

Great post!

I met a few bloggers at She Speaks (Lynn owed me a hug!), and made some new ones as well :-) That’s as much story as I have for now!

OK. Some warning would have been helpful. OH MY! What a testimony these women have.

I haven’t MIRLED yet but I have connected with some awesome ladies. If nothing else, the blog world shows you that you aren’t alone. There are other people out there with problems and issues and sometimes their faith helps you through. Sometimes your faith helps them through.

God can use anything. Even the Internet.

This past year was probably the most painful year I’ve had as an adult. Who were the people who came along “beside” me and carried me through and loved me and laughed with me and encouraged me and refuted lies for me and spoke truth to me? Five bloggy friends. They have enriched my life in incredible ways. I am so thankful. I know that they have brought our Father pleasure, and their friendships have changed my life. One of them was at dinner with you last night, Sophie. :)

And she has endured incredible pain and heartache and betrayal at the hand of a friend, and her example of endurance and forgiveness and grace has been a gift to me.

Now why did you make me go and cry like that?

Oh…are you ready for this? I have made some of the dearest friends through this world o’ blog—and it all began with the LPM blog and me getting the courage to start one myself. I cannot tell you the depth of relationship and sisterhood God has provided!

I have many stories, but there are a few I will share: Dori—I don’t know how we found each other—but girls, she is like the dearest of sisters to me. We call and visit and pray with one another over the phone. We are also sponsoring her nephew this fall in the adopt a cadet program.

Bev—It began with one email and then a trip to DFW and Life Today taping with Beth. We are friends for life. We text each other and pray for one another. God is the coolest!

Joanne—I am just better for having a friend like Joanne. She is teaching me how to be a godly Sister…I couldn’t ask for a better iron sharpens iron kind of friend.

Meredith—For goodness sake, we should have met at the grocery store, we live that close. Now we are great friends, who pray for one another and laugh together and share.

There are so many more. All I can say is that this can be an awesome vehicle for real life “bearing one another’s burdens” and loving like Christ. That’s all I can say.

And Sophie? I really look forward to meeting you and Melanie. I pray for you each and every day, friends.

I just met this crazy lady from Birmingham at She Speaks…

Yeah- pretty much just spent an hour and a half crying like a baby & reading a bunch of Tristan’s story- oh my word! My little boy was born 2 days after Tristan, and I can’t imagine giving him up and still praising God!! Thanks for sharing this blog!

Oh yes! Several years ago now, Shannon and Chilihead and Jeana and about 20 other gals converged upon my house for a blog meet up (Google MIRLfriends and you might find the post) and it was wonderful wonderful. I wish they all lived in my neighborhood. I’d love to do it again. I found them months before, one of them was hosting a Beth Moore Bible study and I commented and then started visiting their blogs and then… It’s an odd way for a friendship to be born, but I’ll take it.

I so agree with what you said about how the internet and blogging connects you to others going through similar situations. I read all of the ladies’ blogs that have lost a baby. Sadly, I am a member of their club and lost my Madeline last June. The Internet has really been a blessing to me and has helped me find other women who understand just what I am feeling.

Mandy

I met my best friend, accountability partner and sister in Christ online in 1999. I lived in IA, she in TN. We have an interesting testimony that anyone who is really interested to know can read at my webpage (follow the link to my blog, then navigate to bios/testimony) but the short of it is I moved to TN when my life had fallen apart and she was living in abuse. We prayed fervently for her marriage and for her husband’s salvation and I thought God moved me to TN to see those plans come to fruition. Not so. God’s plans were very different and unexpected.

A year after moving to TN, she and I ended up sharing a home with her two children. It is eight years later and her kids are growing into responsible young adults, her son going off to the Navy in the fall, and her daughter blossoming into a fine young woman.

I am just a single woman, never married, yet God gave me the privilege of being involved in the raising of kids. I get to share the joys and sorrows that otherwise I would not have had the opportunity to.

Right now I am fostering another friendship with blogger that actually blogs for the local city online newspaper.

God is so good and why He chooses to bless me I do not know.

I haven’t met any of my blogging buddies, but I did meet my husband online.

By far the best use of the internet in my life.

Wow. Incredible story. Unbelievable, except not, because our God is soooooo awesome!

I’ve met lots and lots of my on-line buddies IRL now, and they have been the HUGEST blessing. You’re so right—how would we have connected before??

I do get overwhelmed at times, because I have waaaaay more friends (and I really do think of them all as gen-u-ine friends) to keep up with than I would have without my blog, but hey, I’m not complaining.

I loved meeting YOU, Sophie, you adorable thing, you.

Yes, I’ve met several other amazing ladies through blogging and then met in person for lunch, coffees, at conferences, etc. I even hired one of them! I would have never imagined that I would make friends this way, but I have truly developed some wonderful friendships!

“That is the best story ever,” she says as she sits sniffling over her keyboard. ;)

I have met those who I consider to be my best friends online. I wish so much that they were closer in body.

I met a very dear kindred spirit, sister-in-Christ, on a homeschool forum in 2002…before there was much talk of blogs. Two years later I met her with her family when they were passing through my town some 800 miles from theirs and spent several days with us. After instant messaging, emailing, and talking on the phone for 2 years, it was pretty cool to spend time with this faraway kindred spirit. Then 3 years later I took a trip to their new home 1200 miles from mine to visit and be in their environment for a whole week. She’s not able to be on the computer any more, but I talked to her on the phone just last week. It’s amazing to me just how well we know each other and can pick up wherever we left off the last time. We, too, have prayed each other and our families through some difficult times. I can’t imagine not having had her in my life for these last 6 years.

I have to tell you that I got to meet you by sight at the Deeper Still event in Atlanta. My dear daughter blogger, Monkey Boys’ Mama, pointed out BooMama and Big Mama to me as we sat in the nose bleed section looking down with envy where you had seats behind The Girls. There are kindred spirits everywhere around us, unbeknownst to us until God choses to reveal us to each other. Thanks for the great blogs about an awesome event in Atlanta, Georgia…one of just many my daughter and I have had privilege to attend together.

Sophie - I almost came last night but didn’t have enough time in the end. Maybe next time!

I’ve met Mer from Life at 7000 Feet. We had the BEST time over lunch when I was visiting family near her.

And I love what you said about the fellowship blogging has to offer.

Not unlike the ladies in the brown shirts, I met an awesome group of moms who had all experienced multiple miscarriages. Not through blogging, but through a bulletin board where we specifically shared about our grief, medical issues that might be causing the miscarriages, and the challenges of going on with day to day life with the miscarriage cloud looming over you. Although I have moved on in life, I have kept in touch with a few of those ladies. But I do know that God put them there for me for such a time as that was.

Oh heavens, yes! I’ve met several women who have become such dear friends. Jeana, AM, Shannon, Melanie, Addie, Lori, Pam… Some of them I’ve hugged around the neck and had wonderful talks, but others I’ve only conversed with on the phone or via email (such as you or Melanie). It’s my hope that God will allow me to continue to have these beautiful relationships that have strengthed, encouraged, disciplined and humored me over the last few years. And I feel that God led me to each of these bloggers for a reason, some reasons have been revealed while others are waiting in the shadows. No matter, I’m more than willing to wait with these fine bloggers. They are a balm to my soul and a direction sign that points my eyes and heart in the right direction.

My best friend and I are amazed at what God brought together through the Internet with our friendship.

We often say that had we met first in person, we never would have hit it off because we are sooooooooooo very different from each other. We believe God used the Interent to help us get to know each other from the INSIDE first, and then brought us together in His Divine Providence to offer one another encouragement, edification and accountability.

My friend said to me one day “we share the same blood you know”. Yes, we do, the blood of our Savior, Lord Jesus Christ.

I enjoyed reading your post. I wrote a post on my blog on Monday that is very similar. I have the same group linked along with another group of quad parents that recently met. It is such a small world. I am going to meet Janelle, that you met at Deeper Still, soon for lunch.

I have met some internet friends in person. I met most of them at a Captivating Retreat put on by Ransomed Heart Ministries.

I have not met a blogger in person yet, but have some opportunities in the near future.

What I have discovered with the internet connections is that often your heart is the first things seen and embraced.

It’s opened up relationships that have blessed me beyond measure.

Julie

I have had the wonderful experience of meeting up with 20 other internet friends, a group of horse people who all initially met on a website. Over the 12 years I have been part of this group we have had numerous “reunions” in the area where most of the group are from. We have all formed some wonderful, deep friendships.

I am also blessed to have a best friend in Wales that I originally met over the internet, thanks to my love of boxer dogs. We started emailing due to my posts on a site and we finally met face to face when I went to Wales to visit her and her family. It’s been about 5 years since we first met and she has now been here to Arizona to meet my family. We email, instant message, and call frequently. She has become a dear, valued friend…all because of my computer!

love my met on the net friends. we just had a family of four fly out to us, in OR, from PA 2 weeks ago. we met blogging a year ago and bonded immediately. it was definitely God connecting us and it was so very special! they were here in our home for 10 days and it was amazing! people thought we were crazy. and well. we are. but we all just knew there was something special…so we went for it!

i love my blogging family and the community that has developed.

we’re expecting 3 more visits from other bloggers before years end!

WOW! This is so weird. I just happened upon this blog and I AM one of those brownshirted girls! My name is Kristy and my blog is www.babybolte.blogspot.com. I am one of the eight women who met face to face at Deeper Still Atlanta!

Thank you for mentioning us in your blog. We have been SO very amazed at how God has used us to carry eachother and minister to others. We are blessed for sure.

YEA! For blogs!

I wish I had known! Since I decided to go to the Siesta Fiesta, I have been trying to meet women from Birmingham, but I have really not had any luck, at all!!!! :-( :-(

Are you planning on meeting again??

I live in Shelby County, Oak Mtn area - anyone else close by?

C