Before I started blogging I heard about friendships between people I knew in real life and friends they had met online.
To be honest, I thought it was weird. Like, really, really weird!!!
How can you connect with someone and develop a true friendship if you can’t sit down with them and see them face to face? How can you really know someone if all you know about them is what you are reading off a computer screen?
I guess I thought that in order for a friendship to be real you had to actually meet in the traditional way…. ummm… like in person.
But, now I know better.
Now I know that God can use anything (yup, even the internet) to bring friends into your life who will challenge, inspire and encourage you.
I know this because He has so overwhelmed me with all of YOU.
He has taught me to be real with you and blessed me with your realness.
He has taught me that we can truly connect, even if I live all the way up in Canada and you live in California, or Idaho, or Arizona, or Texas….
And now I am singing a completely different tune about friendships then before I started blogging.
Now, if I had my way I would build my own little cul-de-sac of houses and move you all in to be my neighbors 😀
Yesterday I took a step outside the comfort of my blog/email friendship and skype met Denise from Victory Road. Eeeeeeeeeee! Isn’t she just the sweetest?!
See, I would describe myself as more on the shy side. It takes me awhile to warm up. I get really nervous meeting new people and am not the best at keeping a conversation going. I’m just a little too awkward.
So, even though I felt like I truly knew (and loved!) Denise I was super nervous. Excited but nervous. Thrilled, but nervous. What if she discovered just how much of a dork I am in real life????
But she was so gracious, and genuine, and amazing.
I had absolutely no reason to be nervous at all.
(and she didn’t let on at all if she thought I was a dork!)
Seriously. I want to be her when I grow up.
She’s real.
And fun.
And silly.
And her heart is so, so beautiful.
She challenges me more and more to chase after what is real and simply how to be more and more like Jesus with skin on.
And one day, ONE DAY I will get to meet her face to face. And I’ll give her a big hug. My kids will play with her kids, we’ll all eat smore bars and I’ll convert her into a casserole lovin’ mama.
Until then I’ll have to settle for skype.
And the teeny tiny hope that maybe one day we can move to California.
Do you have blogging friends that you have met or want to meet?
And tell me, when will we meet?
I love Jesus, my guy Chris + our four. We seek joy. Homeschool. Adventure together. Mess up and start again.
i am in tears. blessed tears.
i LOVE you too sara. my heart is shouting that so loudly. i want the entire internet/real world to know!
i would be the first one to move on to your culd-de sac!
but i will NEVER eat a casserole.. but i would try your "beef dip." hehe
i miss you now.
btw- it will be a bit before i get to posting i am sew busy (literally sewing a gift for someone i have to deliver in two days. a gift i just started. can we say procrastinator).
i want to be like you too sara. so gracious, and seeking after God's heart, giving the best to your children, and your God.
and you a dork! i outdorked you, hands down!
Love it!! So glad you "met" her in person 🙂
I'd love t meet you!!
Love this!
I have a lot of internet friends who I would love to meet IRL some day. The Skype thing makes me nervous too b/c I am also the shy, takes awhile to warm up, type! So happy the two of you were able to "meet"! I think both of you are fantastic!
You are NOT a dork – you are so beautiful inside and out! You are creative and fun and wonderful. You are such an amazing mother and your kids will have so many terrific memories of all of the fun things that you did with them. I wish I could have been more like you when mine was small.
Aww that's so cool! I must say I don't have that many people on my blogging list, but most of them are people I know and have met, but there are the few exceptions (such as yourself) that I have yet to meet! 🙂
I definitely understand! I used to think bloggy/online friendships were strange. But now I have some of those friends. And Denise is one of them. She IS amazing and she challenges me too. Come to think of it, I believe I found your blog through a comment you left on hers, and I'm just loving getting to know you too!
This is a great story, loved reading it. I'm super shy, uber dorky, and kind of an introvert. So I can relate to how you feel I'm glad you guys got to "see" one another. Here's to friendships, whatever they manifest from and into!
I just watched your testimony over at Denise's blog. You both have such beautiful hearts for Christ. Thank you so much for sharing.
I met my best friend in a Yahoo gameroom. We were online friends for 6 years, then she got engaged and asked me to be her matron of honor. The first time we met was when she picked me up at the airport the week of her wedding. We are both shy and were both very nervous. Here it is 3 years later and we haven't seen each other since, but we email, chat, and text every day.
Enjoy your friendship. You may be far away in distance, but you will always be close in each others hearts.
Aww that's so cool! I must say I don't have that many people on my blogging list, but most of them are people I know and have met, but there are the few exceptions (such as yourself) that I have yet to meet! 🙂
This is a great story, loved reading it. I'm super shy, uber dorky, and kind of an introvert. So I can relate to how you feel I'm glad you guys got to "see" one another. Here's to friendships, whatever they manifest from and into!