Have you ever had the experience of being certain you are doing what God inspired you to do and someone came up and told you that you should be doing something else with your life? How did it make you feel? Did it confuse you? Did it make you frustrated and angry? Did you feel contention? Or that you were being derailed? Did you question yourself? Did you question your own inspiration? Did you doubt?

This happened to me recently, and I have to admit that it was one of the most emotionally painful experiences of my life! I’m certain this person had good intentions, but it hurt. What they did was tell me about something that concerned them, then insisted that Marnie and I spread the word about the issue they were concerned about: Lift up a voice of warning! Use your social media and communication skills and experience to educate and warn others about this awful danger!

Unfortunately for them, as soon as they brought up the subject, I felt like throwing up. The issue was not new to me, and I’d already resolved how I’d deal with it. But their pushy insistence that I pay attention to this vital issue and DO SOMETHING NOW! raised contention in my heart. It didn’t feel good, and it was not something I wanted to be involved with at all.

Unfortunately for me, it made me doubt what I am about.

Process Steps to Recognize and Avoid Doubt and Contention

1. Recognize that, as soon as you feel inspired to do something, forces will gather to get you to doubt and NOT to do something. It could be a direct command from a spouse, parent, family member, leader, friend: “Don’t do that. You’re waisting your time.” It could be a suggestion: “That’s good, but you could do _____ instead.” Or people will come up with any number of reasons why you can’t or shouldn’t do something. Anticipate the naysayers, and you’ll be prepared to overcome them.
2. If you are certain you are on the path that Heavenly Father has inspired you to be on, know what that path is. Marnie and I have recently come up with a fairly strong mission statement about what we’re supposed to be doing. After floating around for awhile, we realized what we are to do deals with helping others find peace and joy in nature, hear God’s messages in nature, and then express that peace and joy creatively. You can read more about Spirit Tree Farms mission statement here. Because of that knowledge, I knew as soon as this person started telling me what I should do, (because it was a contentious political subject that I didn’t want to be involved in,) that was not the right thing for me to do.
3. The topics we’re passionate about do not have to be an either / or situation. It’s not a “better than” situation. Our passions — our purposes — are just different. This person is committed and concerned about this particular political topic. In fact, it might be a great topic for Marnie’s Front Porch Sense blog, which deals with politics. Other people might be concerned about the food bank, or about native plants and wildflowers, or about unemployment and making sure everybody has jobs, or about more effective ways to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His message, or about exercise and good health, or about any number of other things.
   Isn’t it great that we live in a world that has so many options and so many important topics we can be involved in? My mistake in answering this person’s thoughts was to negate and demean what they had said by saying things like: “I won’t make any difference” or “I don’t want to waste my time with that.” That immediately put them on the defensive, feeling that I thought that their passion was not important.
4. Feel how a topic makes you feel. If somebody tells you to do something, pause, and feel how it makes you feel in your soul. When this person brought up this topic and told me I needed to do something about it, I felt and knew immediately that, because of the contention, anger, and nauseous feeling that I had, that it was not a topic I needed to be involved in. It was okay to be aware of it, but I didn’t need to spend my efforts doing what this person wanted me to do.
5. Be resolved in what you want to do and what you are inspired to do, and express that up front. It wasn’t until very deep in the conversation that I realized how strong my resolve was to do what I needed to do (see #2 above). This person actually did me a favor because, in sparking that deep realization, I discovered that I had not been as passionate and as energetic in doing what I was inspired to do as I needed to be.
6. Don’t argue about it. At the start of our discussion, I immediately came up with several reasons why I shouldn’t or couldn’t or wouldn’t do what this person had asked me to do or had suggested that I do. The reasons were logical and well thought out. But, later on, because they are a skilled arguer, they threw those same reasons back in my face. When I said that I was going to do something else, they derisively said: “Oh, like go plant blueberries?” That hurt my feelings. It made me angry and it made me distrust them. In fact right now I’m working through not even wanting to be around this person anymore, and not trusting their friendship at all. Don’t give people the opportunity to turn your words against you.
7. In the same vein, recognize how you have been inspired by Heavenly Father to do certain things, and just say that. It wasn’t until well into the argument and conversation that I finally got to the point of saying “Obviously, you feel inspired to do this thing. I feel inspired by Heavenly Father to do what we are doing at Spirit Tree Farms. It’s not better than or worse than, it’s just different.” And once I said that, the arguement and contention — and my own doubt and confusion –dissolved.
   I once wrote an on-line dating article about how it’s okay to say no. The principles in that “Just Say No!” article are valid here. When we give reasons for not doing something or for doing something, we give other people the opening to argue and tell us that we’re wrong. It’s like a salesperson overcoming objections. But when we say “I don’t feel that this is what I’m inspired to do right now. I feel inspired to do this other thing!” then nobody can argue against our feelings. The argument ends.

Increasing My Resolve, Doubting My Doubts

“We teach Nature observation so people can hear and feel and experience God’s love and messages in Nature. As they do, we show them, by example, how to let Nature inspire their own unique creativity.” Mission Statement: What We Do At Spirit Tree Farms

I also feel strongly about where that inspiration comes from, and so it was like a renewal of my testimony about my purpose. I don’t doubt. And the arguement actually is motivating me to do more. Because as I was sitting in my rocking chair, getting ready to watch a sports event on TV, I realized, through this discussion, that, although I was passionate about this topic, I hadn’t done a lot recently to move forward with what Heavenly Father had asked me and inspired me to do. For all the anger and contention this discussion and criticism brought into my house and my soul, it ended up being a positive, because it motivated me to work harder at what I know I should be doing.

And that’s a good thing.

And now I’m even more motivated to go plant blueberries and connect with the Earth!

Don’t Doubt Your Purpose In Nature