There is a saying popularized by the original grunge singer, Neil Young, that seems very profound to me. That saying?

Rust Never Sleeps.

Three simple, small words, but put together, they can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. What does it mean? Well, there is the literal definition, that rust doesn't sleep. What is rust? Generally, rust is naturally decaying iron or an alloy of iron, such as steel. When something is built out of iron, it immediately begins to break down, especially when it is exposed to the elements, usually water. It was discovered that if iron or steel has some kind of coating applied to it, that the process of rust is slowed dramatically. If you seal out the elements, rust has a harder time forming and breaking down the metal. For proof of this, just look at your car. If you get a rock chip in the paint, the metal underneath it is shiny and clean. But if you don't do something to protect the metal soon, rust will begin to form quickly, and will start attacking the body of the car from the inside out. The metal breaks down and the rust grows, undermining the integrity of the preventative coatings on your car. After a while, the chip in your paint grows, and if left unchecked, will eventually get large enough that large pieces of paint will flake off, exposing a large, rusty mass because the paint has nothing to hold it on anymore. The once-shiny exterior finish of the car is destroyed, exposing the truth that is ugliness beneath. The rust never slept, you did, and because you did nothing to protect your car it turned from something of beauty to just another example of ugliness in the world. The sad thing is, it could have been prevented if taken care of at an early stage, but now, it's gotten out of control, and it will take considerably more work to repair the damage now.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, I would liken it to ourselves. In life, we have our protective coatings. The gospel. The scriptures. Our relationship with God. Our friends. Many other things I can't think of right now. So, someone kicks up a rock at you. If you have a good protective coating, it may bounce off. So they kick up another rock, and another, and another until eventually they hit hard enough in a less-protected spot that it finally cuts through the surface. It gets past the protective layers. If you deal with it quickly and effectively, the damage can be repaired. But if you let the small damage go untreated, it will begin to grow, and fester your soul, and will eat at you, until one day the large pieces of your protective coating fall off, because they have nothing to cling to, they have been undermined from the inside because you let something small get under your skin. By this time, your ugliness is shown for all the world to see, and it is no secret that a once beautiful thing is now being destroyed and needs major work to correct itself. The sad thing is, it could have all been prevented if taken care of at an early stage, but now it has gotten out of control, and will take considerably more work to repair the damage now.

That's one of the reasons I sought out LDSTalk. I was looking for a place to help repair myself, to help me build up my protective coatings, so that when I go out into the rest of the world, I would be able to come back here to help repair the spiritual damage done when others throw the rocks of the world at me.

That's part of the reason why I don't enjoy the troublemakers here, they come in the guise that they are helping others, when in fact they are hurting others. They are not applying protective coatings, and what little coatings they claim to be providing are actually watered down or misrepresented as something else. When it becomes evident that the fakes are hurting the board, I believe it's time to empty the trash or find another place to help make the necessary repairs to our souls.

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