What have you done for your marriage today?

That is a question that does not normally come up in marriages, according to Mike and Kelly Houser, of Garden City.

The couple completed a Marriage For Keeps class, offered by Catholic Social Service. The class is a 13-week course designed to strengthen marriages by teaching communication skills and techniques.

“Marriage reduces child abuse, drug abuse and poverty,” said Debbie Snapp, executive director of Catholic Social Service.

The service is one of 21 organizations receiving money from the Finney County United Way. Catholic Social Service will be receiving $4,000, or 3 percent of its total budget, from the United Way.

Mike and Kelly Houser have two children, Kayden, 8, and Faith, 3. The couple took the class after Mike found out about it while working on his master’s degree in social work. “You can never have too many skills to work on your marriage,” he said.

Deb and Rex Oyler, of Garden City, also completed the class. The couple has been married for a year and has a blended family, including seven children.

This is the second marriage for both Deb and Rex. They wanted to do “anything we can do to keep things in the right path,” Rex Oyler said.

Married couples who take the class are encouraged to find time to do things together in time increments, such as five or 10 minutes.

The class teaches married couples to give as much time and attention to their marriage as couples do to their job and children.

The class is free and offers gift certificates to participants, and all religions are welcome. It also is offered for all types of marriage. But it is not a therapy session – instead it is a class on how to improve marriage.

“It becomes a part of you,” Mike Houser said. “There’s something empowering about that. I’m celebrating my marriage.”