The Stick-With-Yous...

It's funny, the things that will stick with you.  I'm not talking about I-just-ate-5-Guys-burgers-and-fries stick with you, or get-that-stupid-Ke$ha-song-out-of-my-head stick with you; I'm talking about out of all the things anyone has ever said to me in my entire life up to this moment, I remember these words.  That kind of stick with you.

There are obvious stick-with-you moments and words, but then there are some my mind remembers for no apparent reason, yet won't budge from their comfortable position in my consciousness.  They won't even politely retreat to my subconscious. 

Today, one of those stick-with-yous was on my mind.  It's always there and I don't have to sift through much to remember it, but I've never analyzed why it's stuck.  Until today.  Let me set up the memory for you:  I was seventeen, and on a mission trip to Northern Ireland with my good friend.  We had completed our week of training and now were on a team, ministering in the small town of Killileagh (I hope that's how it's spelled).  We worked a children's VBS in the mornings, planned all afternoon, and put on a youth group at night for teenagers.  We were fortunate enough to be staying in a huge, beautiful home that looked out onto the rolling pastures for which the Isle is so famous (though it must be said that if the wind was right, we could smell the pig farms).  And so in this house we resided one night, exhausted from a hard day's work.  I sat with my friend in the doorway of the kitchen-- I have no idea why.  We were talking with another team member.  Actually, she was a team leader and became very close to my friend and me (though she turned out to be a really manipulative weirdie with deep issues).  She was a Canadian college student, funny, and had a magnetic personality.  Naturally, when she spoke we listened, and in our minds, her words were wise.  I listened when at this moment, sitting in the doorway of the kitchen, she said:

"Amanda, you strike me as the kind of person who, no matter what has happened, will walk into the church with her children, head held high."

I remember I didn't know how to respond.  ...Thank you?  OK?  How... nice?  And I also remember that while it seemed like a compliment, I felt uneasy about it.  Every now and then her words echo in my ears and I get that same feeling-- kind of flattered, yet somehow uneasy and uncomfortable.  Today I think I figured out my uneasiness.  Why would I be walking into church with just my children, and what would have happened to make me keep my head high?  What would have happened to make my head want to droop?

Why would someone say that to another person?  It's like saying, "You strike me as the kind of person who will be OK, even when your husband cheats on you and everyone is talking about it."  What a weird thing to say to someone else.  Probably that should have been my cue that she was a weirdie.  Funny how it stuck with me for nine years.  I hope her little "insight" never becomes a reality. 

So do you know what I'm talking about?  Are there random stick-with-yous that always seem to float around in your head?  Tell me about them-- maybe it's like when a song is stuck: if you say it, it will go away... or at least slip to your subconscious.