In the fall of 1980, my wife, JoAnn, told me about a disturbing statement that had been made by one of the sisters in our ward: "If I were to walk out of my house tonight and never come back, I'd never be missed!" We decided to tell our Relief Society president about this statement. She told us that it was a symptom of a deeper problem that she and the bishop were helping to solve.

        Only two days later, JoAnn learned that a friend whose husband had died about six months before was now angry with him for leaving her and their six children. She was also angry with her ward members, with her bishop, and with the Lord. When I heard about her anger, I wondered whether her bishop and her home teachers understood that she was passing through a normal stage of psychological adjustment. If she told them that she was angry, would they reply, "Oh, you don't mean that"? She did mean it! Her anger did not last long, but at the time, she meant every word. I've talked to her since, and she now looks back on her feelings with a smile.

        My wife and I started thinking about the many problems people face and how great their need is for help. Almost all members of the Church find themselves at some time in the position of counselor and helper. Where can the untrained but sensitive person turn for trustworthy information? There is an abundance of excellent information available for the professional, but there is all too little information available for the lay counselor. And this is especially true of counseling information written from a Latter-day Saint point of view.

        With these thoughts in mind, I began writing down topics that I knew were common problems. After talking with friends in the counseling and family relations fields, the list of topics grew even more. Everyone I mentioned the subject to expressed a need for a counseling handbook for lay counselors. Two friends in particular gave me a great deal of help in the beginning, Terrance D. Olson and Max W. Swenson. Terry later joined me as a co-editor. Max has continued to give advice and direction.

        Because I knew I was unqualified to write such a book, I concluded that the best approach—and perhaps the only way the project would ever get done—was to ask qualified Latter-day Saint professionals to write chapters on various topics. Terry and I sought out competent people to handle each chapter. When we contacted these people, we found that they too believed there was a vital need for a book written by scholars for laymen about typical counseling problems. They shared our belief that lay counselors frequently found themselves in difficult situations that could be handled more intelligently and with greater inspiration if the counselors had access to basic facts about the problem at hand. We have compiled this book to explain in layman's language some of the shared wisdom of the specialists regarding a number of life's most serious and vexing problems.

        We have asked professionals to write for laymen because we believe that we can "bear one another's burdens." You and I need not be professionally trained to help others, but we must operate on correct principles and have personal compassion and humility.

        We have asked the authors to frame their comments in a gospel context. We have encouraged the authors to include appropriate scriptures or excerpts from General Authorities' talks. The authors have avoided jargon and technical terms. They have included examples, illustrations, and case histories. Because this is not a book for professionals, we have asked the authors to hold footnotes to a minimum.

        It is not necessary to read this book from cover to cover. A reader would gain much by doing so, but each chapter stands alone.

        We believe this book is valuable because the authors, each with different experience, have attempted to show lay counselors a number of gospel-oriented solutions to human problems. Every author would tell you that his suggestions are a place to start, not the final solutions to the problems at hand.

        This book is not a "crisis" book. It relates more to ongoing problems of adjustment in personal and family life.

        This book cannot take the place of inspiration. The Lord has said, "I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right." (D&C 9:8.) With the Spirit's guidance, good help can be given.

        The opinions expressed by the authors in this book are their own, but we would not have included them if we did not generally agree with them.