you know me better than I know myself

This person is able to call things out in me that I have not seen in myself. similar to culture, when one is an observer of another culture, she may notice things that members of the culture do not notice. What she notices is something the observed culture takes for granted.

[example: an observer of american culture may notice a general blandness in the American’s taste for food. Or, the strict individualism Americans hold themselves and one another to.]

I have my own culture. We all do, because not one of us has the same set of experiences. I’m used to doing things a certain way and not really questioning it. Slowly, good and bad thought processes, actions, etc. become so habitual, they are taken for granted.

[example: observers notice I move my lips when I’m not speaking, syncretizing with the person speaking to me. also, initial response from me tend to be extreme.]

The more intimate a relationship becomes, the more the people involved are able to identify behaviors, habits,... that are ‘strange’ in the other. When the behavior noticed and mentioned is especially impedimental, or especially honorable, our reaction is,

*this person knows me better than I know myself!*

Something is being named in “me” that has gone unchallenged thus far. I have not had to observe it, attempt to understand it, etc. because I did not recognize it as unusual, inappropriate, or special. Just normal. Just, me.

In order for the second party to bring it up, however, she has likely been observing and trying to understand for a while. It is not something that is normal to her.

When the naming conversation happens, it invokes a sort of breathtaking response.

*How could this person know this about me, so well, when I don’t even know what it means for myself?*

Explicating the consequential attachment does not take away from the heavy significance it carries.

Accomplishing the contrary, it dignifies the bond that has occurred.

We grow, form, soften, excel, exist, and move forward, living in complete dependence on the relationships we engage in; relationships with peers and with God.

We are dependent on those who know us better than we know ourselves,

we are dependent on the One who fully knows us...

better than we know ourselves.