Is forgiving a stranger easier than forgiving people close to you ?

Hmmm...I think for me, its easier to forgive people who are close to me...cause I want to keep our friendship/relationship. So I try to understand them when they do some stuff that I don't like.

Well, I would not put it as "flaws" becasue I normally do not worry about the flaws of other people as long as this does not impact me.FOr eg, if someone is to be moody or illtempered or jittery and nervous ,breathing down on someone's neck,I will get boiling mad if it is anybody ,if the boorishnes is shown to me..I would not allow friends to get so close and irritate me nor would I normally allow relatives to do this. If somehting does not impact me or my loved ones then it is not my concern and the rule is 'each to one's own" be it relatives, close people or friends or strangers. i WILL BE UPSET WHOEVER DOES THIS TO ME-if it close people I will be hurt ; if it si outsiders I will get angry.I will keep away from both.

I guess it's easier to forgive strangers because there isn't a deep relationship between you to. There is no bond nor trust to be broken. We have a harder time forgiving our friends because we expect a lot from them.

yes, to most of us,though we always think we are open mind and kind.but we usually are strict to our family members and friends.especially to our partner.because we alway hope them to do better and better.the bigger your wishes, the more your disappointed.

It is a good question. I have had the same feeling as yours, i can forgive a stranger more easyer because what a stranger do or say is not important to me and i really don't care about it. Only the people close to me can give me a real hurt.

It depends on the gravity of what they did. I think it's easier to forgive strangers when they have wronged you because you don't really care much about them and you won't easily get affected. However when they're people close to you.. that's kinda hard to get over with because in general, people don't really hurt the ones they love. There's this feeling of betrayal when the very people you trust or turn to when you have problems are the same ones who would hurt you. They are your comfort zones and without them you feel more alone and secluded.

vandana....with me, it is only because I have a lot of time and effort in the friendship.....and nothing invested in a stranger! The stranger, it is easy to write them off, but with a friend I have the obligation of trying to understand! I do not think of it as a dual standard...you have emotions invested in a friend..and not a stranger. Cheers!

Yes! Very much as I know that it's also because of coming into contact everyday customers let's say for example. Forgiveness makes working together easier. If I were to put everything that a customer says in my head or take every little word they say in the wrong way, I may lose my job and have a hard time getting along with my peers as they may think that I'm argumentative. For family, just like you, knowing them better I would encourage and push them more than someone I do not know well.

yeah, most of the times since they are strangers which mean I often see rarely or just a short arguments and eventually any misunderstanding ensued would be resolve immediately since their is no blood ties connection. In case of relatives or close kin their are many instances they are repeat offenders and their are times that you may forgive them or in my case forgive them but not forgotten since they tend to abuse my kindness and the privilege I gives to them just simply saying sorry or talking to me nicely i am easy forgive them which lead for them to repeat since they already know my me as easy to forget and forget their slight blunder.. In case of biggest offense committed by them against me only time would tell if I could forgive them but I would still maintain to be civil to them despite of the feeling of being offended despite the differences were still connected by blood ties only heighten the gaps with the unfair biases treatment which often result in some sort of misunderstanding.

I think so sometimes... Even though you love your significant other when you fight it hits the heart and a stranger does not get close to the heart just the pride....

I think everyone has a harder time forgiving people we are close to. We don't really expect anything from strangers and so when they let us down it is less hurtful.

well if i were to be betrayed by any of my friends then they would be out of my way for sure---coz if he could lie to me today then he is capable of doing anything and every thing against me in the future so its pretty difficult to forgive them.coming to the strangers i do not give them a chance to do anything bad to me so there is no way i had to forgive them and i never had any experiences to share about them though.great day.

We are human being and added is something when we are emotional for any reason. I prefer to forgive everyone for first time but if its repeated than probably will have to separate myself from his/her actions. Sometimes not forgiving works better then forgiving. So my first option would be forgive and again if repeated, let him/her go their way and learn lessons which might come to them in a very hard/strange way, they might realize their mistake and back on track. I do not have double standard for anyone at least in this case for sure:)

the reason behind this is you have no attachment to strangers, no emotional bond, you don't depend on a stranger to be there for you. a betrayal by a friend hurts because it makes you question your own thinking on why they were ever your friend or if someone cares about you how can they treat you so shabbily.

hi i do not know why i really can not forgive .. i can pretend as though it does not matter but i cant even forget ~ no matter if it is friend or family ... I dont set much expectation onto family members at all, i will only set at the limit where i think they are able to support only, more of emotional support only I did have high expectations from my husband during the years he was my lover (16 years) but i learned to set it lower as it was really painful and i could not forgive when he went against them .. Now, when he does things it just surprises me ... as he goes more than what i epected

hi vandana madam, that is common in human beings,it is in you and in me and in all persons of the world and even in the animals also,every body is having this type of mentality,there is no exception for this in everybody,i too will follow you in this matter,have a nice day

Hi vandana, I suppose so...Strangers are after all strangers and one is not too bothered by anything they do. if it is something really serious then you don't even mind taking some action against them.But when it comes to someone close to you, things are totally different.I would feel let down no doubt, but would try my best to see how things got that way ....

No that doesn't really make any sense to me. If my friends wrong me I will try and look past it because relationships are too precious too let a friendship slip away when you could do something about it.

Hi Dana Yes, I believe forgiving a stranger is easier, simply because we do not know what to expect from them. But when wronged or harmed by a loved one...that is NOT expected and hurts much more. Possible, though, with time and effort to forgive anyone. Karen

Well for me it depends on the weight of the sin... But if both stranger and close friend or family did the same bad thing to me, I think I would rather forgive my close friend or family... Because there is strong foundation between us, unlike with stranger... I would also think and feel that the stranger does't have the right to do such thing to me... I mean how dare him to do bad things on me... we are not even close...