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Online Relationships (The OPINION Thread)

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Ruukah

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Ok first of all, I'm Carri20. I started the thread asking for advice on how to tell my parents about my online relationship. In that thread I did NOT ask for OPINIONS on online relationships, but they keep pouring in anyway. So now I've started this separate thread for those of you who can't fight your urge to rant and bicker. This is a dumping ground for your opinions. Hopefully we can keep the other thread clean now.

So go on, have at it.
 

keyz

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I don't like the whole idea.. there is to much to hide behind. I know some people who "act" totally different online, and then you see them in public and they don't "act" anything like how they act online.

Seems like there could be a tendency to be fake (not even intentionally). I'm not saying it can't work because obviously it has, but I think I just am different than most people.
 
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fluffy_rainbow

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Well, unfortunately the thread about telling your parents seemed like a great place to say, "don't say anything yet" because why stir up the controversy when the real issue at hand is that you need to seriously examine the situation you're in. This all ties into the fact that you are making plans to move far away from everything you know to a strange town to instantly marry a strange man.

You want my opinion on internet relationships? Here it is. They are usually for very lonely people. It's all a fascade. You can edit comments before you send them to make sure they appear just right. You can shape your personality and your remarks to transform yourself into the person you think the other person wants you to be. You can make empty promises. You don't know someone until you spend one on one time together face to face.

Please don't talk about how in the Bible people were put into arranged marriages and it worked out. Don't forget, these people were not only guided by God, Himself, but also wise elders and their families. They wouldn't have put them with some psychotic creep who takes advantage of desperate young women. You are using these examples to try and justify what you're doing. You're clinging to this stranger because he seems like a way out. He will enable you to run away from your problems. The real problem, however, is that you may be running into even more trouble than you have at home and there will be no one there physically to protect you.

How do you know he will be a good husband?
How do you know he will be a good father to your children?
How do you know he isn't a serial killer?

You don't. You've only spoken via internet. And if it were just you and you alone and you wanted to take such an insane risk and compromise your safety then I'd say, "hey, you're an adult. I wouldn't advise it, but no one can stop you." In this case, though, you have children that must come before your own selfish whims. By making such a drastic move you are putting them at risk which, in my opinion, is appalling. If you want to be with this man so badly, if you think this is as good as it gets, then go for it, but leave your kids with your parents because regardless of how you feel about them at least they'll be safe.

You're worth so much more. Face it, he's a guy online who has never met you and he claims he's ready to take in you and your kids and marry you. That should tell you something right there. He has no common sense. That alone sends up a huge red flag.

Be smart. Stop looking for a quick and easy way to bail on your problems.
 
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MrsSeptemberPenguin

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I do agree that she needs to be very careful, and consider the children's safetly and not just her own.

How do you know he will be a good husband?
How do you know he will be a good father to your children?
How do you know he isn't a serial killer?

While he could be these things, how do you know he won't be a good husband or father, and that he is a serial killer? You don't

To the OP I think it would be a good idea to get to know him in person better, make sure someone knows where you are and go to a very public place where there are always people around.
 
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JustSomeGuy

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I think you have to be careful starting any sort of romantic relationship. This may sound bad, but you need to be at least a little suspicious at first. I dated a girl for two years and it started as an online relationship. Before we were "a couple" the whole relationship was online. She lives about an hour away from me so it was possible to go see her on the weekends. I thought I was being carefull and I asked alot of questions online before meeting her to make sure that she was someone I wanted to date. Through the two years of the relationship I came to find out that every answer she had given me was a lie. Everything she said she was against she was actually for and was doing behind my back.

I don't think that sort of problem is limited to online, though it may be easier to lie online. I have a cousin that married a man that told her he had been married once and only once before. That was fine with my cousin as she had been married before also. She found out after getting married that this man had actually been married three times before and that each of his kids was from a different woman.
 
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septemberskies

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Ruukah said:
Ok first of all, I'm Carri20. I started the thread asking for advice on how to tell my parents about my online relationship. In that thread I did NOT ask for OPINIONS on online relationships, but they keep pouring in anyway. So now I've started this separate thread for those of you who can't fight your urge to rant and bicker. This is a dumping ground for your opinions. Hopefully we can keep the other thread clean now.

So go on, have at it.

Note: I'm soley addressing the OP without knowing or reading what other posters have said or the other thread.

I think the best way to approach introducing the relationship in honesty... there is no way around it but just saying what it is. I think that they may not be receptive to the whole ideal understandably out of concern and love.

Now I do think you should meet up with him a couple of times (if you haven't already) and get to know him face to face before ranting about him to family and friends. It would be easier for them to digest knowing that you have been around this person before and its more than just an "online romance". It would be also good for you too because you will know for sure that everything is real on both sides on the fence.

I really can't think up any method that would be better then just being direct with them and willing to hear the feedback (good or bad). Maybe just talking it over dinner would be good, or if you have trouble getting the words out you could write them a letter and leave it in a common area they are always in.

*shrugs*:scratch: I don't know what else you could do. Sorry....

-septemberskies
 
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Ruukah

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Alright now I'm replying.

Blue Impulse, let me be as frank with you as you have been with me. Your posts on this subject grate my nerves like no one else's. Not for the fact that you disagree with me--I can handle that--but your reasons for disagreeing with me are highly questionable. So for once, allow me to make a suggestion. I suggest you stop trying to compare your online relationship to everyone else's. Not everyone is as blind as you claim to have been. You didn't just "go around God's timeframe"; you ignored God completely and ended up yoked with a nonbeliever in a marriage that by your own admission wasn't part of God's original plan for you. It's for that reason you can't begin to compare your husband with my fiance, or your relationship with ours or anyone else's. And you can't begin to tell me what God has planned for me. I know you love playing the role of the jaded little housewife who sees all and knows all, but let's face it--relationship advice is NOT your specialty. So it's time to stop feigning wisdom in this department.

To the rest of you--If after all this honest praying and submitting myself to His will my marriage turns out to be a mistake, then everything the Bible teaches us about God will have been a lie. Since the Bible is infallable, and its portrayal of the character of God is 100% accurate, and the promises of God are binding, then there is no way in heaven or earth what we're doing is a mistake. If I had any doubt of that I would have asked your opinions from the start. And don't mistake this thread for a request of opinions--it is what I called it in the beginning: a dumping ground. But here's something for you to consider...

BIBLICAL FACT #1: God can use any and all means necessary to accomplish what He wants to accomplish. Logically, one would conclude He can use the Internet to bring potential marriage partners together.

BIBLICAL FACT #2: If a person submits his or her life totally to God, seeking to do only His will, He will not fail them. He will not let them "miss" His blessings.

Combine these facts and you will see that it IS possible for two people to meet online and know that their relationship is pleasing to God. If it is possible by God, then who are you to call it impossible?
 
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KristianJ

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MOD NOTE

Alright, when a thread title allows for opinions to be shared, I would rather not see people assume a licence to shoot down people's opinions. I've said it before in other threads - opinions can be based on life experiences, and a person's expereiences are not there to be degraded. I am not standing up for any one view on this from any person - I am merely saying that if we're to get along and have a peaceful thread, we have to consider what we're saying to others.

Even though this may be a dumping ground, it's not a place to dump on others and devalue their opinion. Please respect each other, and I will close this thread if attitudes are not kept under control. There's responding in a way that communicates a respectful disagreement of views, and there's a way of doing it where your method of posting implies that either the other person doesn't matter or that you're the only one that people should be listening to.

Whilst God uses many situations to bring forth his perfect will and purpose, he does so through allowing others to share advice. Whilst someone's advice may not do anything for you, it may be something that causes another person to re-evaluate their relationship, and perhaps save it.

So I'd like to ask that people try to limit their posts to sharing opinions, and if you disagree with someone else's opinion, you can say so, but respectfully. :)
 
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Ruukah

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Hurt you? You think that's what I was trying to do? No, that has never been my intent, and I'm glad to hear my words haven't had that effect. Now, providing you with a little eye-opener was my intent...but apparently I have failed at that. And angry with you? I'm about as angry with you as I am with the fly I just swatted off my office wall. You annoy me. That's no secret. But you don't anger me. If your heart is with the Lord then you are my sister and I love you as such whether we find ourselves butting heads day in and day out or not.

Now then, let me clarify something else. I don't mind when others disagree with me or share their concerns with me in a gentle, loving way. I can brush that off as a misunderstanding of my situation; a typical outsider's response to something they don't understand. What bothers me is when a person's very first response to my original question is a cocky "slow the marriage bus down". The speed of my "marriage bus" was never a topic open for discussion. You don't know me and your opinion was never asked for or needed. Yet here you are, still trying to push it on me, still insisting that you are right and I am wrong. Arrogance. You want me to respect you? Act like a person who deserves respect. Don't pretend to know everything about everyone. That's a job for Psychic Friends. And just for the record, this isn't an attack. I simply challenge you to examine the way you're handling yourself here. Continuous off-topic ranting and flaunting of non-Bible-based opinions won't be as tolerable to some as they are to others. I, for one, have a notably low tolerance for it.

I'll leave you with that thought.
 
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KristianJ

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After assessment of the situation at hand, and the fact that we have a lot of threads where the topic of online relationships can be discussed, I am closing this thread down. It serves absolutely no positive purpose for individual finger pointing to occur, and I feel that the best preventative measure is to close this thread, leave this message for all members to view, then remove the thread altogether after a short time. If you want to talk about the topic in a manner that is respectful of those who you post with, feel free to find one of the threads that already exist - under CF rules, staff are entitled to redirect conversation to existing threads.

Thank you all for your understanding.

KristianJ
Senior Moderator - Courting Couples
 
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