Nate and Alaina Maiwald: Building a Marriage

Marriage finds its meaning in a greater love—the love of Christ for His Church, poured out completely. That vision became clearer to us through Westside's Preparing for Marriage course we took last year.

The communication portion of the course was, without question, the most helpful part of the class.

One of the most impactful things we learned was that when you can’t put words to a feeling, paying attention to what’s happening in your body can help you understand what’s really going on—whether that’s anger, sadness, excitement, or something else entirely.

It’s a simple but powerful tool, and in the last year we’ve used it more times than we can count.

We were also encouraged to step into honest conversations about sex—what we knew, what we didn’t, and the expectations we were carrying into marriage. Having those conversations ahead of time removed so much anxiety about what the other person might be thinking or assuming.

It helped us move past the awkward question of, “Should we even be talking about this before we’re married?” and gave us a safe, thoughtful space to explore the topic without crossing boundaries.

We came in feeling like we already had a healthy communication style while dating, but this class introduced tools we didn’t even know we’d need. It took the pressure off of trying to be perfect and instead invited us to focus on learning each other more deeply—learning how the Lord designed us to love one another through Him.

We are deeply thankful for this experience and reminded that there is always more to learn as we seek to love as Christ first loved us.