LORD, I JUST WANT TO BE HAPPY - Leslie Vernick - Free Book

Welcome to my blog, Leslie. You are writing nonfiction. Do you also write fiction?

No I’ve never written fiction but I’d like to try sometime.

What would you like for our readers to know about you personally?

I am a licensed Christian counselor who has a private practice. I see adults and couples mostly. My parents were divorced when I was 8 years old. My mother lost custody of all her children when I was 14 due to alcoholism and abusive behavior. I think my childhood experiences have made me more sensitive as a counselor. I am passionate about repairing and rebuilding relationships when possible. My tagline is “Enriching the relationships that matter most!”

Tell us about your family.

I am a new grandmother to Amaya Love. It is wonderful. I have been married to Howard for 34 years and have two adult children, one we adopted from Korea.

Have you written other nonfiction books?

Yes, I have written six nonfiction books, mostly out of the angst of my counseling practice when I’ve pondered which book to recommend to people in distress. When I couldn’t think of one that I thought fit their particular need, I wrote my own.

My best-selling book is The Emotionally Destructive Relationship: Seeing It! Stopping It! Surviving It! The theme for this book grew out of my distress over the church’s lack of response to those suffering in abusive and destructive relationships. It has a clearly biblical response on how to recognize destructive relationships and what to do to stop them and how to heal from them.

Do you have any other books in the works right now?

After writing 6 books in 10 years I felt it was time to take a sabbatical. So I’m waiting on the Lord to see if He has anything else He wants me to say. I find writing a book an extremely taxing endeavor in every way. I don’t want to do it if He isn’t in it.

What kinds of hobbies and leisure activities do you enjoy?

I enjoy traveling, reading, sitting by the fire, gardening, walking, and talking with my girlfriends. I love to cook for special occasions, not every day. I used to paint with watercolors and have recently thought about starting again.

Why did you write the featured book?

Lord, I Just Want to be Happy is a phrase I often hear in the counseling room, not only from those who are desperate or depressed, but from all of us who wonder how to experience this abundant life that Jesus promises. I used to think that it was God’s will for us to be holy, not necessarily happy but I don’t believe that anymore. Holy people are happy people. They have found their source of joy, peace, love, and hope to be God and are living in sync with their created purpose.

Authentic happiness is not about feeling fabulous and never feeling pain. It’s about feeling pain and finding purpose. It’s about being able to transform the mundane into the miraculous and finding the diamonds embedded in the mud cakes of life. This does not come easily for most of us and we need to learn how.

What do you want the reader to take away from the book?

As a Christian counselor, I am well aware that many things are not as they should be. Sometimes living in this world is excruciatingly painful. It might be unrealistic to think we can be happy all of the time. But there are definitely some things we can learn so we can be happier people more of the time but I don’t think people know how.

Over the years I’ve been frustrated reading Christian-Living books because they often do a great job at describing the problem, or even where we should be, but don’t always help the reader get from A to B. In other words, I’m always left wondering exactly how do we become more holy? How do we trust God more? How do we experience the fruit of the spirit?

In Lord, I Just Want to be Happy, each chapter gives the reader something to think about as well as new skills to practice so that they can gain greater emotional and spiritual health.

Where on the Internet can the readers find you?

http://www.leslievernick.com/
http://www.leslievernick.blogspot.com/
www.facebook.com/leslievernickfanpage
www.twitter/leslievernick.

Thank you, Leslie, for spending this time with us.

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