October 23, 2023 • 41 mins
Ever been on a date night that goes hilariously awry? Clint and Amber, seasoned advocates for regular date nights, share some laugh-out-loud stories about their misadventures in trying to keep romance alive amidst the chaos of family life. From a ghost-chasing babysitter to the struggles of arranging quality alone time with strong-willed kids around, we reminisce about the good, the bad, and the downright funny of our dating past.
Drawing from our experiences, we delve into how setting aside guilt and prioritizing your marriage can set an example for your children and ultimately strengthen your bond as a couple. Of course, we don't shy away from sharing a few creative date night ideas and dishing out advice on setting boundaries to protect your special time.
But it's not all fun and games—we also reflect on the joy and strength that can be found in marriage during challenging times. We open up about a painting from Epcot that serves as a symbol of our marital perseverance and discuss the importance of maintaining a team mentality to stay connected. To top it all off, we share some of our favorite tunes to set the mood for date night. So, come along for a hearty laugh, some solid marriage advice, and a chance to get to know us a little better.
Check out @wish.podcast on Instagram!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Clint (00:06):
Welcome to the Wish I Would've Known podcast.
Amber (00:10):
I'm Clint and I'm Amber, and we've been married for
almost 20 years.
Clint (00:16):
And in this 20 years we've gained a lot of wisdom and
found ourselves in the middleof some pretty crazy stories.
Amber (00:22):
And now we want to share those things with you.
Clint (00:26):
Here's some stuff that we wish we would have known.
All right, hey everybody.
Welcome to another episode ofWish I Would've Known.
We are live, everybody, we'reexcited.
How fun is this.
Amber (00:42):
So fun, we're here at Austin Ridge Bible Church for
date night.
Clint (00:46):
Date night.
This is the weirdest date night.
That's probably not true.
I was gonna say it's theweirdest date night I've ever
been on, but it's definitely not.
Amber (00:53):
Oh yeah, what do you think is our weirdest?
Clint (00:55):
Oh, I don't know, but I got a couple stories that we're
about to tee up here, in aminute.
Some of the most disastrousones, for sure.
Yeah, anyway, so guys wish Iwould have known.
We're on season three.
We've already gone through acouple different things
throughout the course of thisseason.
Last episode we talked a littleabout AI.
Amber (01:13):
Yeah, we talked a lot about AI.
Clint (01:15):
And ultimately it ended in Amber and I wanted a recorded
record in case AI ever becomessentient, that they know that
we're like for them.
Amber (01:26):
We're friends.
Clint (01:27):
Like we are on your side.
Amber is the person that she'llask Siri to do something and
she'll say thank you.
Amber (01:34):
I always thank Siri and Google.
You guys do that you justyou're polite right yeah?
Clint (01:38):
You're, like Google said, a timer for Blankety Blank.
She's like timer set for Blank.
Thank you.
Amber (01:43):
Yeah, you just say thank you.
Clint (01:44):
Thank you, Just in case you get feelings and you have
ideas of your own.
Amber (01:48):
remember me on one of the goodness, I'm nice to you,
exactly, all right.
Clint (01:54):
So to you, let's talk a little bit about date night.
Amber (01:56):
All right.
So we're here for date night.
All the couples are heretogether.
We're here together and we'rehere to talk about the
importance of dating your spouse.
A lot of us have been marriedfor a long time.
Even if you've been married fora short time, you start out
dating as before you get marriedand then, as you get married
and you have kids, it becomesharder and harder to make that a
priority.
So we just want to talk tonightabout what that looks like to
(02:17):
make that a priority.
Clint (02:19):
I feel like a majority of our disastrous date night
stories come from a kind of aspecific time in our lives.
It's like when we had to havebabysitters and whatnot?
Amber (02:29):
Yes, how many of you are in the babysitter phase?
Just give a round of applause,yeah.
Clint (02:33):
Shout out for you guys that are in the babysitter phase
right now.
So I specifically rememberthere's one that I can't get out
of my head and because it'sOctober and it's spooky season,
we're going to talk about thisone.
So Amar and I are on a datenight.
The kids are all relativelyyoung.
I think it was just the threeboys at the time.
Amber (02:54):
Is this right?
No, it was Marit too.
It was Marit too.
Clint (02:55):
We go to dinner.
It's great.
We haven't had a night out in awhile and babysitter calls and
she's panicking.
Like full on panicking, Likefull on panicking.
We're like trying to talk herdown, like hey, what's going on,
who's hurt, what's happening?
And then she goes.
There's a ghost in your house.
We're like what she was like.
(03:19):
All of the kids are upstairswith me under the bed.
There's a ghost in your house.
Amber (03:24):
In the background, the kids are like whimpering and
we're like, oh my gosh.
Clint (03:28):
Like what are you talking about?
And so first of all, we're likeno, there's not.
What does it matter with you?
Yeah?
Amber (03:38):
But then we ended up having to go home because the
kids were so freaked out aboutit.
Clint (03:41):
Like imagine being in a restaurant.
You're like check, like what'swhat's the matter?
Like well, there's a ghost inmy house in my house Got to go
home and deal with that.
Amber (03:50):
So we get home and come to find out Obviously, spoiler
alert there is no ghost.
The ceiling fan in our bedroomwas making a noise.
Clint (04:01):
Like a.
Amber (04:03):
Yeah, that was the ghost, so that ruined our date night.
Clint (04:06):
Yeah, and so, needless to say, amber's mom never babysat
for us again.
Amber (04:12):
It was not my mother.
That would be so funny if itwas.
Clint (04:17):
We didn't use that babysitter ever again.
But yeah, I like I rememberthose seasons where life is so
busy and so so many times whatyou're eating is like a leftover
peanut butter and jellysandwich that your kid didn't
finish.
Going on a date night is such abig deal, so to have them like
be ruined is kind of a bummer.
Amber (04:38):
Yeah, our youngest mayor she was.
She was a tough one Well, itwas is but she loves you, mary,
when she was little we love you.
Clint (04:45):
It's gonna, Mary, it's gonna.
You're amazing.
Hey, Mary, it's gonna listen tothis in like 10 years.
Amber (04:49):
You can do great things, so you're strong-willed and
that's awesome, right?
So when she was little, shejust would not go to bed, like
she was the hardest to put tobed, even for me, and so I would
tell babysitters that likeyou're gonna have a hard time
back.
And so there we were at afootball game and she's texting
me and this is like 10 o'clock.
She's like Mary won't go to bed.
I'm like neat, tell her she hasto go to bed.
(05:10):
So an hour later she's likeMayor wants to wear a bathing
suit to bed.
I'm like, first of all, why arewe still talking about this?
I don't care, that's fine, lether wear a bathing suit, just
make her go to bed.
We get home from the game atprobably 1 am.
Clint (05:25):
It had to be like 1 am.
Amber (05:26):
Football game.
We get home and we're likehow'd it go?
And she's like that's good.
She went to bed probably about30 minutes ago and I was like
what she's like wearing amermaid tail.
Clint (05:38):
Yeah, like she's under a tent, like a blanket fort.
Amber (05:43):
I don't care, just make her go to sleep.
Clint (05:45):
Yeah, I know that's so crazy.
Oh, do you remember when weweren't going to talk about this
one?
But now we're going to.
Amber (05:53):
OK.
Clint (05:53):
Because I like to rabbit trail.
What was the situation where wegot called because one of the
kids threw up and thebabysitter's like hey, it was
Isaac.
So we had a puker, isaac's apuker.
I don't know why he had acidreflux.
He had reflux so bad, but whenhe was a baby imagine.
So we had twin boys.
Jack at the time was two yearsold, and so we would sit all of
(06:16):
them in their car seats threecar seats across the back of our
SUV at the time and Isaac wouldhave acid reflux and Jack can't
deal with it.
He can't, just can't, and hehas the worst gag reflex ever.
So Isaac would spit up and thenJack would try to announce it
to the rest of the car in hislittle two and a half, three
year old voice.
He'd be like mom, dad, isaacspit, isaac spit, and he just,
(06:41):
he just can't, he just can't.
Amber (06:43):
So yeah, we get 17 years on, we still do that all the
time.
Clint (06:50):
Yeah, we get a call from a babysitter and she's like, hey
, Isaac, Isaac threw up.
And we're like, yeah, he doesthat.
No, you need to come home.
We're like, no, no, no, it'sokay, you know we're going to
stay for dinner.
She's like, no, he threw up allin my hair.
Amber (07:03):
She had this like super long red hair.
It was beautiful and, yeah, shenever baby.
Clint (07:11):
She probably has a podcast about that now, where
she's like been going throughtherapy.
Amber (07:15):
Yeah, she probably does.
She got puked on by this kid.
Wish I would have known thatkid was a puker.
That's her podcast.
Yeah, that kid was a puker.
We have another puked story.
Clint (07:22):
Let's go two for two on the puked stories.
Bring it, bring it.
Amber (07:25):
No, this was not necessarily a day.
I think we we have met a coupleat church and we're like, oh,
we want to be like couplefriends and maybe do some couple
dates, and so we went out withyou know that season in life
where you're just so desperatefor like other other, like adult
humans, to hang out with.
Clint (07:40):
Yeah, yeah that season.
Amber (07:41):
So we ended up going to lunch with him after church to
like sort of you know, see if wevibe and that kind of thing.
But we had our kids with us andyeah, I think it was Isaac
again.
Clint (07:51):
Of course it was.
Amber (07:52):
Thank you, isaac, for listening to this.
He ate something and then endedup throwing up and I, I do you,
moms, do this.
I caught it in my hands.
Why do we do that?
Clint (08:01):
Why.
Amber (08:02):
Why is that my reaction?
Clint (08:03):
I point the child away from me, yeah.
Amber (08:06):
And I'm like here, let me catch it yeah.
Clint (08:08):
What's you gonna do with it?
Yeah so we, I don't know.
Amber (08:12):
I'm trying to save it from going everywhere, and
that's just my natural reaction.
I'm not the only one right.
You guys do that too, Thank you.
Clint (08:18):
Okay.
Amber (08:19):
There's hands in the room for podcast listeners.
Yeah, but yeah.
So I, yeah, caught it in myhands and we didn't.
We didn't hang out with himagain either.
Clint (08:26):
Yeah, they, they.
They didn't choose us.
Amber (08:29):
All right, so what we did we didn't get the bachelor rose
.
No, we didn't.
Clint (08:33):
We'll be couple of friends with them.
They're like, oh yeah, that'sthat's, that's the pukey family
we're not friends with them.
Amber (08:38):
That lady is a weird.
So what we did for all youpodcast listeners is, before we
started the podcast, we wentaround the room and had
everybody write down some crazydate night stories, so we just
shared some of ours, but we wantto share some of yours, so do
you want to go first?
Clint (08:52):
Okay, Um, yeah, okay, so I haven't, we haven't read any
of these yet, so we're going tohave to just kind of react to
these, like do we have a bleepbutton ready, or something?
Amber (09:02):
Hopefully.
No, okay, all right.
Clint (09:03):
Cool, all right, here we go.
I'm just going to read it.
Here we go Off the dome,thought I was driving up a dirt
hill to look at the stars.
I like it, but as the truckstarted to sink, recognized it
was a large pile of manure.
Wow, wow, that's the crappiestdate.
(09:28):
That's amazing.
My date, which is now my wifeworked out, got in the back for
weight.
Amber (09:40):
That's a lovely first date.
Clint (09:42):
I'm a needy how much do you?
Weigh how many to get in theback and weigh us down so we
could get out.
And the tire spun so she gotcovered in manure, oh my
goodness.
And then she.
And then she chose to helpclean my truck instead of going
(10:02):
to a fancy party.
Amber (10:03):
Whose story is this?
Clint (10:04):
Yeah, a big, big shout out that way to go.
Amber (10:07):
What a great story.
Let's say an applause for yourwife.
Clint (10:11):
That's the crappiest date night story ever.
That's fantastic.
Amber (10:15):
Here's one.
We went out to dinner with alittle crash, which means a
child tagging along and our sonfell at the place Gap at dinner.
I ran towards him and fell,while 34 weeks pregnant.
No we had to go to the hospitaland our second child was born,
making our boys three yearsalmost to the minute apart.
Clint (10:33):
No way.
So, like you, justinvoluntarily go into labor on
date night.
Amber (10:38):
On date night.
Clint (10:39):
Oh man, that's a good one .
Okay, this one, wow, wow, thisone just says Marionette puppet
show for wedding anniversary.
I have so many questions.
I have so so many questions inmy head.
Amber (10:57):
I just picture the husband like setting it up in
the living room, like have I gotsomething for you?
Clint (11:07):
Can we?
Can we go to Paris foranniversary?
No, I've taken care ofeverything, you just wait.
Amber (11:17):
What are these puppets you ordered on Amazon, don't
worry about it.
I got to play.
Don't get any ideas, please.
Um, all right, this one.
This is a fun date camping onthe beach, surfing in Saus shark
and skydiving in the next day.
Clint (11:35):
What a day.
Amber (11:35):
That's, that's a date right there.
That's like that one you canplan on but that's like.
Clint (11:40):
Here's three ways to potentially die on your date.
Amber (11:44):
That's true, but if you're going to die, you're
going to die together.
Clint (11:47):
I guess.
So Having an adventure, I guessnot watching a puppet show.
Yeah, four ways to die.
How does what happened to yourhusband?
Oh well, he did a marionettepuppet show for anniversary.
We don't, we don't talk aboutthat.
That's on 60 minutes.
That's a 60 minute special.
Now, all right, this one justsays stopped by morality police,
(12:08):
police in Iran for being on adate.
Oh so wow, international travelwith some intrigue, but
morality police for being on adate.
Amber (12:17):
The morality police yeah.
Clint (12:19):
I think it's.
I'm assuming you should notallow to do that.
Amber (12:22):
What were you doing on your date that you got stopped
by?
Clint (12:25):
the morality, probably on their way to a marionette
puppet show.
Amber (12:27):
PDA happening Got stopped by some puppet PDA.
John decides that he wants totake a girl to a date at the
drive-in theater, but his futurein-laws and her siblings load
up in a station wagon and comealong.
The movie at the drive-in wasendless love and there was a
love scene which made both of uscringe, so uncomfortable to sit
(12:50):
through.
The reactions of her parentswas more uncomfortable.
Clint (12:54):
No, oh, that's bad.
Amber (12:57):
It's really bad, poor John.
I'm so sorry about that.
Clint (13:00):
Yes, that's the worst.
This one just says dictionarybrought on our first date.
I could, I could only imaginethat's awesome.
All right, what you got.
Come on, bonnie, give me a goodone.
Amber (13:15):
Went to high school prom dinner after great start Wait.
Did not have enough money fordessert, had to send it back.
Clint (13:23):
Wait what?
Amber (13:24):
No, you're like, like we'll have this cheesecake, and
they bring it.
I'm like, oh, we can't pay forthis.
Clint (13:32):
I'll take the tiramisu for two.
Make that one.
That's actually zero.
Amber (13:40):
Oh man, yeah, that's fun.
You got any more.
Clint (13:43):
No, I'm tapped over here.
You got one more, I got onemore.
Amber (13:46):
Okay, we signed up to run a half marathon together.
That's not a date, that's work.
When we got to the race thatmorning, I realized I forgot my
shoes.
We rushed back to get them andnearly missed the race.
In the end, we had to parkabout a mile from the starting
line, so we ended up runningabout 14 miles together.
Wow, that was.
That was fun.
That's some people's idea offun.
Clint (14:06):
I don't think I would say .
Amber and I learned early on inour marriage to not try to
teach your spouse how to workout or how to play an instrument
If you want to remain married.
Amber (14:20):
Yeah, that's a wish I would have known.
You can't teach your spouse,like I want to learn how to play
guitar, but he's not the one toteach me.
Clint (14:25):
No, I'm like just do it like this.
She's like I, I'm trying.
We have some friends that likelike I'm a personal trainer, I'm
a train my wife.
I'm like yeah, you should notdo that, that's a bad, that's a
bad idea.
Yeah, we should run a five Ktogether.
It's is a five.
How far is a five K?
K is a thousand three point onemiles.
(14:48):
Oh, I could do a five K youcould do a five, you could go
three point one miles Maybe.
How many miles did we do atDisney, I know?
Amber (14:54):
on an average Disney day?
How about?
I was probably about 12 miles.
Clint (14:58):
Yeah at Disneyland, yeah, Okay, so, speaking of which,
amber and I, we we love goingday dates together.
That's kind of the thing thatwe do with our kids in the age
that they are, with them beingat school.
Friday's my day off, and so wehave this thing called Freedom
Friday.
We are free, lord, thank you.
We're set free from childrenFreedom Fridays.
We used to always plansomething to do fun together.
(15:20):
Amber and I used to live inWalt Disney World.
We did a whole series aboutWalt Disney World on the podcast
.
Amber (15:25):
I was funny when you say that Like we didn't live in like
Cinderella's castle, but likewe lived 15 minutes from Disney.
Clint (15:31):
That's pretty much Walt Disney World, but we used to go
there all the time.
So Freedom Friday for us was wewould just like pull up the
Disney World app and pick likewhich part we were going to go
to on Freedom Friday and like wewould go ride some rides and do
some fun stuff.
Anybody that's like a Disneynerd kind of knows you have like
the Disney app and you get allof the things and your pictures
are there and you get your fastpasses.
So our kids had the app ontheir phones too, so they'd be
(15:54):
sitting in like math class andthey'd get an alert.
They're like well, here's apicture of mom and dad on
haunted mansion.
Hope they're having a great day.
Amber (16:01):
And we'd always be like yeah.
Clint (16:05):
Like knowing that the picture was going to go to the
kids, but I think it's probablyone of the best things that we
ever instituted.
As far as like time together inmarriage is having that Freedom
Friday and just trying to findsome kind of adventure to go on.
Amber (16:17):
For sure.
So tonight you know we'retalking about date night and why
it's important to date yourspouse.
You know, because life getscrazy and busy and you have kids
in there and it gets evenbusier, and so you know going on
regular dates is funny.
Preparing for this I was likereading articles and stuff like
that, and there was a surveythat was taken that said that
couples that go on regular datesare more likely to not split up
(16:40):
like duh.
Clint (16:42):
But you know I mean simple as it is depends on what
you do because, listen, you aretoo competitive when we play
putt putt.
Amber (16:50):
I am not, I just win.
That doesn't make mecompetitive, that means being
good.
Clint (16:54):
Okay, okay, all right.
Amber (16:56):
You're competitive because you're mad that I'm
winning.
That's what it is.
Clint (17:00):
Okay, this may be true.
There's like a cheat code thatshe's doing when we go play putt
putt.
Amber (17:06):
Give me this one thing.
I'm like.
It's the one thing that I'mgood at.
Clint (17:10):
You are ridiculously good at putt putt.
You should like go on tour toplay putt putt.
Do they have that?
I think they have that, Sorry.
Amber (17:18):
Austin Ridge Church.
I can't lead worship anymore.
I'm going on a putt putt tourWhere's Amber, I thought she was
singing this week.
Clint (17:24):
No, she's in Las Vegas Puttin' it up, gonna bring home
the big prize money.
Amber (17:30):
No, I'm not competitive.
Anyway, going on regular datenights.
You know, when you go on a date, it allows you to remember the
things that you loved about yourspouse.
You know why you guys fell inlove in the first place.
He's funny, he's charming, Allthat kind of stuff.
Keep going.
No, that's I'm done.
Clint (17:45):
That was a short list.
Short list, you know okay.
Amber (17:48):
It removes the distractions right, because I
think sometimes us with kidslike kids can.
Clint (17:53):
Mom can be when you're trying to have a conversation
with your spouse and you'retrying to tell them something
important.
Mom, where are my shoes?
Amber (18:01):
Yeah.
Clint (18:02):
Where are my shoes, mom?
Amber (18:04):
Where are?
Clint (18:04):
my shoes.
Listen every morning when weget all of our kids ready for
school.
Why is it such a big surprisethat you have to brush your
teeth and put on your shoes?
Why is it a big surprise?
Why do you need me to monitorthat?
To explain to you Did you brushyour teeth?
We'll know.
Amber (18:22):
We literally have to ask that every single morning, did
you brush your teeth?
Clint (18:26):
Yeah, did you brush your teeth and put on deodorant?
We're trying to do a service toour community, yeah.
Amber (18:33):
Yeah, and then you know, date Night promotes intimacy.
It gives you opportunity tohave conversations with each
other without being interrupted,and you know it's a good thing.
Clint (18:43):
I agree.
You know, I think one of thebiggest things that Amron and I
learned and we kind of learnedthis over the years especially
like taking opportunities andgoing doing Date Nights together
If any of you guys are familiarwith the Five Love Languages,
we did a podcast episode aboutit so you can go and check it
out.
I think it was in season two,right, or was it season one?
Don't know, don't know, you'rejust here.
Amber (19:03):
I'm just here for them All, right Cool?
Clint (19:05):
Anyway, what are the Five Love Languages?
Again, give them to me.
Amber (19:07):
All right they are quality time acts of service
gifts physical touch and wordsof affirmation Okay, Cool.
Clint (19:15):
So here's kind of what we found and this really helped
our marriage a ton.
You are, by default,predisposed to give love to your
spouse the way that you want toreceive love.
Ultimately, that's like fishingto get that thing from your
spouse.
So, like case in point, my lovelanguage is words of
affirmation.
So I'm constantly telling Amberhey, you're a great mom, you're
(19:38):
an awesome wife.
I'm so grateful for you, you dothis great, you do this great.
And she's like that's reallycool.
Pick your crap up off the floor.
Oh my gosh.
Amber (19:48):
We're not going to get any of that, yeah.
And then I am gifts and so Ilove surprises and I love giving
things and being reallyintentional about what I get.
And I'm not going to be in thehard way about that.
Like I would try to plansurprise parties for him and
he's like I don't want that.
I'm like who doesn't want asurprise party?
What is wrong with you?
Clint (20:07):
But that's just that's how I don't, but I just I really
don't.
But it was one of those thingswhere it's like this dying to
self of I.
I know that Amber likes to besurprised and she likes the
thoughtful things and she likesthe intentionality, and so
instead of just telling her thatshe's a great wife, she's a
great mom, give me the gift ofpicking up your crap.
Yeah, okay, and I'm like justbring it, bring in home flowers.
(20:29):
I don't know if that soundsstereotypical, but it's just
this like surprise of oh man,you're really thinking about me
and that was great.
And it's understanding that ourresponsibility is to make sure
that we are loving our spousethe way that they are wired by
God to receive that love.
And it's so cool how intimacygrows and develops when you're
(20:52):
operating in that way, howconnection grows and develops
when you're operating in thatway.
Amber (20:57):
It's fully a trust thing too, right?
Like if I'm going to give youwhat you need and I'm going to
trust that you're going to alsogive me what I need, like I'm
not going to focus on self andI'm not going to say, well, I'm
because you haven't given mewhat I need.
I'm not giving you that kind ofthing.
But if I just say I'm not goingto worry about that, I'm going
to give you what you need andtrust you.
Clint (21:17):
So Amber and I have been in ministry for 20 years and I
think most people look atpastors and their families in
some ways is like I don't know.
You guys don't ever fight.
Y'all don't ever argue.
Amber (21:31):
He suggested that we do an argument on a podcast.
Clint (21:34):
No, I just know that's not what I said.
Amber (21:36):
No, no, no we should come in here when we're fighting and
like work it out on the podcast.
Clint (21:41):
Yeah, but it would be the worst podcast ever, because
Amber would just sit there likethis whole time.
Am I wrong, though See you'redoing it right now.
Amber (21:54):
What am I supposed to do to that?
Clint (21:56):
I feel so attacked.
Amber (21:57):
You know, when people say you're being defensive and
you're like, no, I'm not, uh-uh,there's nothing good you can
say when someone's saying you'rebeing defensive.
Clint (22:04):
We have like legit arguments and things that we
have to like navigate throughand the thing that we're still
learning.
We've been married for 20 yearsand we have to remind ourselves
literally like this past weekit was a great reminder.
I look at Amber and, first andforemost, are recognized that,
like she's a child of God thatGod loves so much and made so
(22:24):
intentionally and so perfectly,and like God, the creator of the
universe, as ordained by hisprovidence for us to be able to
do this together and I know thatsounds like really christianese
, but I think it like takes youout of the moment of anger and
frustration and lets yourecognize that like not only is
(22:44):
this person someone who is madein God's image, but also this is
someone who God has allowed meto be on this journey, alongside
of which, like I don't, I'mthankful for that.
Remember that about me nexttime that I make you mad and I
don't pick up my crap.
Amber (22:58):
I will remember that.
Thank you, it's documented now.
Clint (23:01):
So it is be like you didn't pick anything up, but
you're made in God's image.
Thumbs up.
Amber (23:07):
God still loves you.
But no, so I reached out.
So our pastors here at AustinRidge, brad and Courtney Thomas,
are amazing people and andtheir life is not easy.
They, they have a special needsdone, but they, over the course
(23:28):
of their marriage, they haveset a regular date night every
single Thursday, I mean sincethey've been married.
And so I reached out to hertoday and just kind of picked
her brain a little bit about howthey did that and why they did
that.
And and she just said, over theyears they've just seen so many
benefits to that and I think ifyou, if you come to awesome
Ridge, you can see that right,like I told her today, that's a
(23:49):
trickle down of your leadership,that you guys have made your
marriage such a priority.
And I just think I I don't knowif anybody has an excuse to not
keep that regular date night.
It would be someone in theirposition, right?
He's a pastor of a large church.
I mean you can only imagine allthe things that he has going on
.
And then she, if you knowCourtney, she does a million
things and volunteers foreverything she can possibly
(24:11):
volunteer for, also taking careof her, her special needs son
and her daughter and they'rejust, they're amazing people but
they prioritize being together.
And she said she's just seen somany benefits in that.
And she just said you know, youprioritize what you value.
You, you find ways to makethings work if it's something
that you value and so valuing mymarriage, it makes us better
(24:34):
parents.
You know she talked about theguilt of her.
Both her kids were reallydifficult.
Anybody here have some somedifficult like colicky crying
kids.
Clint (24:43):
No, I raise my hand.
Amber (24:45):
I know she talked about how difficult it was to to still
keep that date night right.
Your kids are literallyscreaming and you're walking out
the door and poor people arewatching your children know and
you're leaving knowing thatthey're going to scream and cry
probably the whole time.
She said we walk back in thehouse and they're still
screaming.
She's like and I had to justlet go of of that guilt and I
know I can speak for women, butthat mom guilt is so real, right
(25:09):
like you.
Just your kids maybe didn'thave the best day or your house
is a wreck.
You feel like everything'schaos.
But it's date night and you,you invite this baby sitting in
your house and you're like I'mso sorry, the house is messed,
the kids are crazy, but youstill just decided to do it.
Clint (25:23):
You decide to walk out the door yeah, I think there's
always going to be acircumstantial reason to not do
it, but there's always a biggerreason to do it, and the bigger
reason is the investment thatyou're making into your
relationship and also like forthose of you guys that do have
kids, the model that you'resetting for them, for the type
of marriage that they want to beable to have as well.
You're not going to remember onthe third Tuesday of October
(25:47):
why you didn't go on date nightand because laundry was
exploding or whatever, butyou'll remember if you are
driving up a hill and you thinkit's a hill and your truck gets
stuck and it's a pile of manure,if, like if you didn't go on
date night, that night, youdon't get the benefit of that
story yeah that's a good onethat's real good.
Amber (26:06):
That's real good.
Okay, so let's, let's talkabout some fun date night ideas
while we're you know, whilewe're talking about some fun
things, maybe not driving outinto wherever that was, where
there's manure.
Clint (26:16):
I, I'm, I feel like it was definitely in Texas okay, so
I'd mentioned.
Amber (26:21):
I was like reading articles and prep for this and
one of the articles said playboard games together and I was
thinking that no, no, don't dothat, not with you.
Clint (26:31):
Come on, you're so competitive, see right, you're
so competitive.
Who's?
Amber (26:38):
yelling right now.
Clint (26:39):
I'm the victim no, anyway .
Amber (26:43):
So you know, you know your spouse and you know
yourself.
Maybe board games, you know ifit's for you, that's great.
If you can play monopoly andnot just completely try to
dominate each other, thenawesome can we, can we talk
about monopoly for a second?
Clint (26:54):
guys, that game's stressful.
All right, I already have topay my bills.
I know this.
I know rents do like this.
This is true.
Why am I going to play a gameversion of?
It it's roll a dice go to jail,didn't pay your taxes.
Way to go date night.
Amber (27:12):
So yeah, maybe not.
Maybe not monopoly, but youknow, I don't know.
Clint (27:16):
Board games is if you have no board games, board games
are really fun and that'ssomething we we will do as a
family a lot.
I don't know that you and I dothat like for a date night.
Amber (27:24):
Let's, let's bring out some uno cards next time, see
what happens yeah, and itdoesn't have to be a date night,
it can be a day date.
You know, whatever your, a lotof us work and whatever your
schedule looks like, clint and I, like you, like we said, we
have freedom Fridays, but evenif it's just going to get a cup
of coffee together one day aweek, one morning a week or I
don't know, going on a walkafter dinner, we like doing that
.
So, yeah, just some somehelpful guidelines when you know
(27:48):
when dating your spouse, sorecommend setting a regular date
night and doing your best toguard that and keep that sacred
right.
Don't schedule anything elsearound it.
And I know life happens and Iknow kids get sick and I'm, you
know we I know stuff like thathappens.
But making it like we're notgoing to schedule anything else,
we're not going to have anybodyover, we're going to make this
(28:09):
a regular thing.
We've got a sitter lined up oreven you know I was thinking
about it get together with agroup of friends maybe your
small group or neighbors, andand have a co-op and and say,
okay, we'll take your kids onTuesday night so y'all can go
out, and then y'all take ourkids next Tuesday night so that
we can go out or something likethat, like get creative with it.
The fine ways to you know, makeit a priority.
Clint (28:30):
I'll also just say this as far as not only just guarding
it and making sure it's apriority, but like set some
boundaries to not not talk aboutwork.
Maybe not talk about kids andwho threw up on who and what not
throughout the course of man.
One of my favorite comedians ofall times got a, brian Regan.
He's so funny but he just talksabout, like, stressful jobs.
You remember the bit that hedoes about the butterfly garden
(28:53):
curator?
Yeah, it's like you would notbelieve the stressful day I've
had today the yellow one justlightly landing on flowers, like
I don't know what he's up to.
It's so great.
But yeah, I think it just havingsetting aside a safe space to
be able to engage with eachother, it's just really it's
great yeah and do fun things,like do things that make you
(29:14):
laugh and make you have funtogether yeah, we like, we try
to do some adventurous things.
That's kind of where we lean wedidn't swim with sharks or sky
we didn't do that.
Amber (29:24):
Whoever did that, that's pretty epic, that's a high bar
that is a high bar no, marryingthat puppet show.
Clint (29:29):
I don't know where, somewhere between the two?
Yeah if you could get betweenmarried at puppet show and
swimming with sharks andskydiving.
Amber (29:37):
You're doing good.
You're in a good spot yeah,okay.
So we're gonna, we're gonnaflip it really quick let's just
be real we're gonna be real okay, like we'll talk.
Clint (29:47):
You know, brad and Courtney, they have their
Thursdays and we're now, we haveour Fridays.
What if Friday comes along andum, we're just, we're not
feeling it we're not feeling it.
It's not it.
We're in the middle of a, atiff a tiff if you will yeah not
a tiff's treats those are greatthis less sweet.
Amber (30:05):
Yeah, a tiff you don't always feel like dating your
spouse, right?
You could be in the middle of afight and it's date night and
you have to go out anyway, oryou should choose to go out
anyway.
You know like it's hard, likeI'm mad at you.
I don't want to go.
Listen to you too.
No, thank you.
Like.
That sounds like the worstthing in the world.
That was really specific.
Clint (30:25):
Why was that so specific?
Amber (30:27):
Because y'all know what I'm talking about.
Y'all know I don't want tolisten to you, Jim, about Maddie
.
Making noises over there eating.
So like that's hard, it's hardto choose to go anyway.
And Courtney shared a storywith like that they thought
about like taking separate carsand like looking like they went
on day nine and like going todifferent places.
She's like, but we said, okay,we're just going to at least
(30:47):
ride in the same car, I don'tcare what we do whatever.
But by the end of the datenight they ended up being able
to work it out.
Clint (30:53):
So we had a date night.
Yeah, so we were living inOrlando at the time.
I didn't say Disney that time,I just said Orlando.
Thank you, was that better?
Okay, so we were living inOrlando and Amber and I had
scheduled to go on a date.
Specifically, we had madereservations at this really
really nice restaurant, and whenI say really really nice, it
was at Disney still.
Amber (31:15):
But it was in Paris, you know.
Clint (31:18):
Epcot.
It was in Epcot.
Amber (31:20):
It was in Paris, but still.
Clint (31:22):
But we had these reservations and like we had.
Amber (31:25):
We had these reservations for like two months.
Clint (31:27):
Man, it's.
It's so crazy Like looking backon it now because I actually
don't do.
You remember what we werefighting about?
Amber (31:32):
No.
I don't either I just rememberit was a big one.
Clint (31:35):
Yeah, it was one of those .
It was one of those big ones itwas.
Amber (31:37):
you know it was a big one we were.
We were at each other's throatsand we were super angry.
Clint (31:41):
It's probably put put, I bet, I guarantee you.
Amber (31:44):
We are.
Clint (31:45):
I guarantee you we'd play , but no, no, but I mean, we
were, we were really angry andit was one of those like we're
going to cancel, we're going tocancel.
And it was, um, yeah, we kindof came together and said, hey,
we're, we're still going to go,because we have this reservation
and we feel like there'ssomething to be said for us,
prioritizing our relationshipenough to not let the
(32:06):
circumstances of this fight keepus from going to a restaurant
that we had been really wantingto go to for a while.
Amber (32:12):
I think we say that now.
I don't think we said that inthe moment.
Clint (32:15):
Yeah, then why'd we go?
Amber (32:17):
Because the parents, like your parents, already had our
kids and we already had that.
Reservations were like we'rejust going to go, and we fought
the whole way there and wefought walking around Epcot, the
happiest place on earth.
We were not a very happy and wesat down at dinner but we
managed to, like, talk it outand work through whatever was
going on and it ended up beingthis really beautiful night.
(32:38):
And so afterward dinner, um, wewent in the gift shop, uh, in
Paris, uh, epcot Paris and I gotthis little little painting and
I I keep this painting in ourbathroom now, and when I look at
this little painting, it's apainting of little miniature
painting of the Eiffel Tower andthis couple walking towards it.
And so I keep this in ourbathroom as a reminder to myself
(33:00):
that, like, we can get throughanything, that, like, no matter
how hard life gets or how mad Iam at him or how, how mad he is
at me, that we can get throughit.
And then it's beautiful on theother side, right, and you're
stronger for it.
So if you can just push throughthose moments and even when it
comes to date night, if you canjust push through it and and try
(33:21):
to work it out, at least youhave some quiet time to talk to
each other without children, totry to work it out, right?
Clint (33:27):
I love the.
The proximity of where thatpainting lives in our house is
so close to all the stuff that Ileave on the floor that I think
it's just very providentialthat you see the things I leave
on the floor.
Amber (33:41):
You just start like placing it on top of the pile.
That's what I'm going to do.
Clint (33:45):
I'm going to like just take the painting and just stick
it on my pile and you're goingto look at it and just be like,
okay, we'll get through this.
I know we'll get through it.
I am really grateful for thegrace that God has given us to
navigate through some of these,these things, and it is, I mean,
seriously.
I remember walking around Epcot, I remember fighting, I
(34:08):
remember being frustrated witheach other, but it's so crazy
like I don't remember what itwas or what it was about and
like, looking back now, thatjust makes it seem so trivial in
comparison to the, the callingthat we have to be married to
each other.
Amber (34:24):
Yeah.
Clint (34:25):
And I think it's like being able to remove yourself
from that moment for just asecond in the midst of it is so
much easier said than done, butremoving yourself from that
moment and just taking a secondto gain perspective is just so
helpful.
Amber (34:39):
Yeah, and I think I think , as you said, we're called to
be together.
I think that's super importantin our mentality and our
marriage.
That, like I'm called to beyour wife, that's part of my
part of my calling that God'sgiven me.
He put us together as husbandand wife, as a team.
So keeping that team mentality,keeping that like this, is a
calling that I have, and soGod's going to equip me with
(35:01):
what I need in order to be yourwife, and vice versa.
Clint (35:05):
Yeah.
Amber (35:06):
If we both keep ourselves in that place where we're
asking God for that.
Clint (35:11):
I just thought of another crazy date story.
Amber (35:13):
Oh.
Clint (35:13):
It just came to the top of my head because I was
thinking about walking aroundEpcot.
Yeah, Most of man, our livesreally revolved around theme
parks a lot.
What does that say about us?
Amber (35:23):
That we like.
Are we adults?
Clint (35:25):
Yes, Okay, All right, Cool, All right.
We are.
So, Amber and I, right when wegot married I'm talking like
right when we got married wemoved down to Florida and we
lived on the East coast ofFlorida and at the time we were
we were too poor to go see amovie together for date night.
But somebody had given us as awedding gift annual passes to
(35:47):
universal studios.
So we would just go touniversal studios and ride,
rides and go walk around andstuff.
Amber (35:52):
We used to go a lot and we also drove there in a car
Someone gave us.
Clint (35:56):
That's true.
Amber (35:56):
Our car broke down.
Clint (35:57):
Lots of blessings and we didn't drive on the toll roads
because couldn't afford it.
Man, being married was awesomewhen we started out, it's great.
This was kind of a definingmoment for us.
So we'd been married for, let'ssay, three months, maybe three
or four months, and times weretough.
We had just moved down there, Ihad taken this ministry job at
this little church in Melbourne,florida.
Rent was due at our littleapartment and we we were like I
(36:23):
don't know 400 bucks short.
So at the time, 400 bucks waslike a mountain, yeah, like a
mountain of manure.
Like a mountain of manure.
You knew what you were going tosay.
Yeah, you knew it was coming.
So it was like it was justimpossible for us.
And so I'm sitting on the couch.
When I say couch, I mean futonthat we had when we were 20
years old and just married.
So I'm sitting, I'm sittingthere thinking like, and I'm
(36:44):
praying, I'm like, god, listen,like you've blessed me with this
marriage, amron.
I just got married.
Like we're strugglingfinancially, like what are you
going to do?
What can I do?
And I y'all.
It's one of the few times thatI just really felt like the Lord
had something so clear a pathset for us.
For that night I just felt likeGod said I want you to take
your wife on a date.
And I was like, okay, mike,check.
(37:06):
I don't think you heard me whenI said we don't have any money,
what am I supposed to do?
So the one free thing that wecould do was go up to universal
because it was free.
So we go and we we decide let'sgo.
You know, we got like I don'tknow 30 bucks to go and eat at
Margaritaville, which that placewas great Split a cheeseburger.
Split a cheeseburger in paradiseat Margaritaville.
(37:28):
Rip Jimmy Buffett.
We miss you.
We go when we're eating atMargaritaville and somebody sees
us sitting over there and it'sjust one of those like kind
people that says, hey, we'regoing to pay for that young
couple's meal.
And I thought it was just likethe sweetest thing ever and it
was just so cool and it was likethis affirmation of like hey,
god, you knew that that wasgoing to happen for us.
Like how, how cool thatsomebody paid for a meal.
Well, if that wasn't enough, wewalk outside of Margaritaville.
(37:51):
We're holding hands.
You were walking around, it's agood night, it's pretty outside
, by God's providence, andinevriated individual started
throwing hundred dollar billsoff the balcony of
Margaritaville.
And I kid you, not literally,he's just up there going hey,
everybody down there, and startswhipping out hundoes and
(38:12):
chucking them off.
So I go grab me four of themand we go back home, we pay rent
.
Amber (38:18):
Yeah, we did, yeah, we did Seriously that happened.
Clint (38:26):
And y'all I.
It was just this specificpicture where I'm just like okay
, god, as silly as that is, it'sraining money.
It's raining money, like assilly as that is.
Like you told me to take mywife on a date night and I did,
even though the circumstancessaid it was impossible when we
couldn't do it.
Like God's providence, he justhad our marriage in mind.
(38:49):
And not only that, but he knewexactly what we needed and I'm
I'm so thankful for that.
But that really did set thecourse and, like every year, I
go and sit under that balcony atMargaritaville and I just I got
a bucket.
I'm just waiting, waiting onthat guy to come back.
Amber (39:05):
Those margaritas hit real hard.
Clint (39:07):
Yeah, I did.
I'm thankful, that was so funny.
Amber (39:11):
All right, wrap us up in praying about what to talk about
tonight, I kept feeling likePsalm 51 to restore to me the
joy of your salvation andapplying that to our marriage.
I was just thinking about, youknow, making that a prayer that
God would restore to me the joyof my wedding vows, that God
would restore to me the joy ofwhen we were getting married.
(39:35):
You know, when we were firstdating and how exciting the
world was and event.
You know, we were so poor, butwith us against the world, and
just, you know, life happens andyou sort of forget that feeling
and you forget that, what, whatall that was about.
And so that's just that's myprayer for me and I hope that
helps you that you know, makethat your prayer that restored
to me the joy of my wedding vows, that on that day I stood in
(39:57):
front of my friends and myfamily and I made a covenant to
you that said that I was goingto love you, for better or for
worse, for sickness.
You know, in sickness andhealth, and crap on the floor or
crap hung up where it'ssupposed to go, that's what I
committed to do.
So that's that's my prayer aswe continue in our marriage that
we would make that you knowwhat we're about.
Clint (40:17):
Yeah, that's so good.
I'm thankful for that to youand I think that's a great.
That's a great thing for us toall challenge ourselves to do is
to to remember that and praythat God would restore that joy
to us in the moments where wedon't have it.
It is a joy being married to you.
Same, I like being married toyou.
Go team, all right guys.
Thank you all so much for beinghere tonight.
Thanks for being on the pod.
(40:37):
You guys are awesome, yeah, hey, so for for everybody, we have
a little, a little resource.
Music is a big deal to Amberand I.
We just love good music, andgood music for us pretty much is
anything that was written atleast 30 years ago or more.
Amber (40:55):
That's the kind of stuff that we listen to 30 years ago
was like 1990.
Clint (40:58):
So, oh, no, oh, no, yeah.
So 40 years, wow, yeah, I feelvery attacked.
Okay, wow, man, okay, anyway.
So the playlist we actuallymade a playlist on Spotify and
so you can, you can find it.
We'll post a link to it as wellon wishpodcast, on Instagram.
(41:19):
But it's just a wish.
I would have known date nightplaylist and it's got a bunch of
really good jams on it, and sowe want to encourage you guys.
Next time you go out on a date,fire the thing up, listen to
some Whitney Houston, it'll getyou going.
Yeah, it's good stuff.
All right, sweet.
That's it guys.
Thanks so much for being here.
We appreciate y'all.
Wish I would have known isrecorded in the beautiful hill
(41:39):
country of Austin, texas, thelive music capital of the world.
Follow us on Instagram, atwishpodcast, and stop by to say
hi.
We like it when people say hi.
Thank you, eddie and theincredible and wonderful Melody.
Welcome to the Wish I Would've Known podcast.
Amber (00:10):
I'm Clint and I'm Amber, and we've been married for
almost 20 years.
Clint (00:16):
And in this 20 years we've gained a lot of wisdom and
found ourselves in the middleof some pretty crazy stories.
Amber (00:22):
And now we want to share those things with you.
Clint (00:26):
Here's some stuff that we wish we would have known.
All right, hey everybody.
Welcome to another episode ofWish I Would've Known.
We are live, everybody, we'reexcited.
How fun is this.
Amber (00:42):
So fun, we're here at Austin Ridge Bible Church for
date night.
Clint (00:46):
Date night.
This is the weirdest date night.
That's probably not true.
I was gonna say it's theweirdest date night I've ever
been on, but it's definitely not.
Amber (00:53):
Oh yeah, what do you think is our weirdest?
Clint (00:55):
Oh, I don't know, but I got a couple stories that we're
about to tee up here, in aminute.
Some of the most disastrousones, for sure.
Yeah, anyway, so guys wish Iwould have known.
We're on season three.
We've already gone through acouple different things
throughout the course of thisseason.
Last episode we talked a littleabout AI.
Amber (01:13):
Yeah, we talked a lot about AI.
Clint (01:15):
And ultimately it ended in Amber and I wanted a recorded
record in case AI ever becomessentient, that they know that
we're like for them.
Amber (01:26):
We're friends.
Clint (01:27):
Like we are on your side.
Amber is the person that she'llask Siri to do something and
she'll say thank you.
Amber (01:34):
I always thank Siri and Google.
You guys do that you justyou're polite right yeah?
Clint (01:38):
You're, like Google said, a timer for Blankety Blank.
She's like timer set for Blank.
Thank you.
Amber (01:43):
Yeah, you just say thank you.
Clint (01:44):
Thank you, Just in case you get feelings and you have
ideas of your own.
Amber (01:48):
remember me on one of the goodness, I'm nice to you,
exactly, all right.
Clint (01:54):
So to you, let's talk a little bit about date night.
Amber (01:56):
All right.
So we're here for date night.
All the couples are heretogether.
We're here together and we'rehere to talk about the
importance of dating your spouse.
A lot of us have been marriedfor a long time.
Even if you've been married fora short time, you start out
dating as before you get marriedand then, as you get married
and you have kids, it becomesharder and harder to make that a
priority.
So we just want to talk tonightabout what that looks like to
(02:17):
make that a priority.
Clint (02:19):
I feel like a majority of our disastrous date night
stories come from a kind of aspecific time in our lives.
It's like when we had to havebabysitters and whatnot?
Amber (02:29):
Yes, how many of you are in the babysitter phase?
Just give a round of applause,yeah.
Clint (02:33):
Shout out for you guys that are in the babysitter phase
right now.
So I specifically rememberthere's one that I can't get out
of my head and because it'sOctober and it's spooky season,
we're going to talk about thisone.
So Amar and I are on a datenight.
The kids are all relativelyyoung.
I think it was just the threeboys at the time.
Amber (02:54):
Is this right?
No, it was Marit too.
It was Marit too.
Clint (02:55):
We go to dinner.
It's great.
We haven't had a night out in awhile and babysitter calls and
she's panicking.
Like full on panicking, Likefull on panicking.
We're like trying to talk herdown, like hey, what's going on,
who's hurt, what's happening?
And then she goes.
There's a ghost in your house.
We're like what she was like.
(03:19):
All of the kids are upstairswith me under the bed.
There's a ghost in your house.
Amber (03:24):
In the background, the kids are like whimpering and
we're like, oh my gosh.
Clint (03:28):
Like what are you talking about?
And so first of all, we're likeno, there's not.
What does it matter with you?
Yeah?
Amber (03:38):
But then we ended up having to go home because the
kids were so freaked out aboutit.
Clint (03:41):
Like imagine being in a restaurant.
You're like check, like what'swhat's the matter?
Like well, there's a ghost inmy house in my house Got to go
home and deal with that.
Amber (03:50):
So we get home and come to find out Obviously, spoiler
alert there is no ghost.
The ceiling fan in our bedroomwas making a noise.
Clint (04:01):
Like a.
Amber (04:03):
Yeah, that was the ghost, so that ruined our date night.
Clint (04:06):
Yeah, and so, needless to say, amber's mom never babysat
for us again.
Amber (04:12):
It was not my mother.
That would be so funny if itwas.
Clint (04:17):
We didn't use that babysitter ever again.
But yeah, I like I rememberthose seasons where life is so
busy and so so many times whatyou're eating is like a leftover
peanut butter and jellysandwich that your kid didn't
finish.
Going on a date night is such abig deal, so to have them like
be ruined is kind of a bummer.
Amber (04:38):
Yeah, our youngest mayor she was.
She was a tough one Well, itwas is but she loves you, mary,
when she was little we love you.
Clint (04:45):
It's gonna, Mary, it's gonna.
You're amazing.
Hey, Mary, it's gonna listen tothis in like 10 years.
Amber (04:49):
You can do great things, so you're strong-willed and
that's awesome, right?
So when she was little, shejust would not go to bed, like
she was the hardest to put tobed, even for me, and so I would
tell babysitters that likeyou're gonna have a hard time
back.
And so there we were at afootball game and she's texting
me and this is like 10 o'clock.
She's like Mary won't go to bed.
I'm like neat, tell her she hasto go to bed.
(05:10):
So an hour later she's likeMayor wants to wear a bathing
suit to bed.
I'm like, first of all, why arewe still talking about this?
I don't care, that's fine, lether wear a bathing suit, just
make her go to bed.
We get home from the game atprobably 1 am.
Clint (05:25):
It had to be like 1 am.
Amber (05:26):
Football game.
We get home and we're likehow'd it go?
And she's like that's good.
She went to bed probably about30 minutes ago and I was like
what she's like wearing amermaid tail.
Clint (05:38):
Yeah, like she's under a tent, like a blanket fort.
Amber (05:43):
I don't care, just make her go to sleep.
Clint (05:45):
Yeah, I know that's so crazy.
Oh, do you remember when weweren't going to talk about this
one?
But now we're going to.
Amber (05:53):
OK.
Clint (05:53):
Because I like to rabbit trail.
What was the situation where wegot called because one of the
kids threw up and thebabysitter's like hey, it was
Isaac.
So we had a puker, isaac's apuker.
I don't know why he had acidreflux.
He had reflux so bad, but whenhe was a baby imagine.
So we had twin boys.
Jack at the time was two yearsold, and so we would sit all of
(06:16):
them in their car seats threecar seats across the back of our
SUV at the time and Isaac wouldhave acid reflux and Jack can't
deal with it.
He can't, just can't, and hehas the worst gag reflex ever.
So Isaac would spit up and thenJack would try to announce it
to the rest of the car in hislittle two and a half, three
year old voice.
He'd be like mom, dad, isaacspit, isaac spit, and he just,
(06:41):
he just can't, he just can't.
Amber (06:43):
So yeah, we get 17 years on, we still do that all the
time.
Clint (06:50):
Yeah, we get a call from a babysitter and she's like, hey
, Isaac, Isaac threw up.
And we're like, yeah, he doesthat.
No, you need to come home.
We're like, no, no, no, it'sokay, you know we're going to
stay for dinner.
She's like, no, he threw up allin my hair.
Amber (07:03):
She had this like super long red hair.
It was beautiful and, yeah, shenever baby.
Clint (07:11):
She probably has a podcast about that now, where
she's like been going throughtherapy.
Amber (07:15):
Yeah, she probably does.
She got puked on by this kid.
Wish I would have known thatkid was a puker.
That's her podcast.
Yeah, that kid was a puker.
We have another puked story.
Clint (07:22):
Let's go two for two on the puked stories.
Bring it, bring it.
Amber (07:25):
No, this was not necessarily a day.
I think we we have met a coupleat church and we're like, oh,
we want to be like couplefriends and maybe do some couple
dates, and so we went out withyou know that season in life
where you're just so desperatefor like other other, like adult
humans, to hang out with.
Clint (07:40):
Yeah, yeah that season.
Amber (07:41):
So we ended up going to lunch with him after church to
like sort of you know, see if wevibe and that kind of thing.
But we had our kids with us andyeah, I think it was Isaac
again.
Clint (07:51):
Of course it was.
Amber (07:52):
Thank you, isaac, for listening to this.
He ate something and then endedup throwing up and I, I do you,
moms, do this.
I caught it in my hands.
Why do we do that?
Clint (08:01):
Why.
Amber (08:02):
Why is that my reaction?
Clint (08:03):
I point the child away from me, yeah.
Amber (08:06):
And I'm like here, let me catch it yeah.
Clint (08:08):
What's you gonna do with it?
Yeah so we, I don't know.
Amber (08:12):
I'm trying to save it from going everywhere, and
that's just my natural reaction.
I'm not the only one right.
You guys do that too, Thank you.
Clint (08:18):
Okay.
Amber (08:19):
There's hands in the room for podcast listeners.
Yeah, but yeah.
So I, yeah, caught it in myhands and we didn't.
We didn't hang out with himagain either.
Clint (08:26):
Yeah, they, they.
They didn't choose us.
Amber (08:29):
All right, so what we did we didn't get the bachelor rose
.
No, we didn't.
Clint (08:33):
We'll be couple of friends with them.
They're like, oh yeah, that'sthat's, that's the pukey family
we're not friends with them.
Amber (08:38):
That lady is a weird.
So what we did for all youpodcast listeners is, before we
started the podcast, we wentaround the room and had
everybody write down some crazydate night stories, so we just
shared some of ours, but we wantto share some of yours, so do
you want to go first?
Clint (08:52):
Okay, Um, yeah, okay, so I haven't, we haven't read any
of these yet, so we're going tohave to just kind of react to
these, like do we have a bleepbutton ready, or something?
Amber (09:02):
Hopefully.
No, okay, all right.
Clint (09:03):
Cool, all right, here we go.
I'm just going to read it.
Here we go Off the dome,thought I was driving up a dirt
hill to look at the stars.
I like it, but as the truckstarted to sink, recognized it
was a large pile of manure.
Wow, wow, that's the crappiestdate.
(09:28):
That's amazing.
My date, which is now my wifeworked out, got in the back for
weight.
Amber (09:40):
That's a lovely first date.
Clint (09:42):
I'm a needy how much do you?
Weigh how many to get in theback and weigh us down so we
could get out.
And the tire spun so she gotcovered in manure, oh my
goodness.
And then she.
And then she chose to helpclean my truck instead of going
(10:02):
to a fancy party.
Amber (10:03):
Whose story is this?
Clint (10:04):
Yeah, a big, big shout out that way to go.
Amber (10:07):
What a great story.
Let's say an applause for yourwife.
Clint (10:11):
That's the crappiest date night story ever.
That's fantastic.
Amber (10:15):
Here's one.
We went out to dinner with alittle crash, which means a
child tagging along and our sonfell at the place Gap at dinner.
I ran towards him and fell,while 34 weeks pregnant.
No we had to go to the hospitaland our second child was born,
making our boys three yearsalmost to the minute apart.
Clint (10:33):
No way.
So, like you, justinvoluntarily go into labor on
date night.
Amber (10:38):
On date night.
Clint (10:39):
Oh man, that's a good one .
Okay, this one, wow, wow, thisone just says Marionette puppet
show for wedding anniversary.
I have so many questions.
I have so so many questions inmy head.
Amber (10:57):
I just picture the husband like setting it up in
the living room, like have I gotsomething for you?
Clint (11:07):
Can we?
Can we go to Paris foranniversary?
No, I've taken care ofeverything, you just wait.
Amber (11:17):
What are these puppets you ordered on Amazon, don't
worry about it.
I got to play.
Don't get any ideas, please.
Um, all right, this one.
This is a fun date camping onthe beach, surfing in Saus shark
and skydiving in the next day.
Clint (11:35):
What a day.
Amber (11:35):
That's, that's a date right there.
That's like that one you canplan on but that's like.
Clint (11:40):
Here's three ways to potentially die on your date.
Amber (11:44):
That's true, but if you're going to die, you're
going to die together.
Clint (11:47):
I guess.
So Having an adventure, I guessnot watching a puppet show.
Yeah, four ways to die.
How does what happened to yourhusband?
Oh well, he did a marionettepuppet show for anniversary.
We don't, we don't talk aboutthat.
That's on 60 minutes.
That's a 60 minute special.
Now, all right, this one justsays stopped by morality police,
(12:08):
police in Iran for being on adate.
Oh so wow, international travelwith some intrigue, but
morality police for being on adate.
Amber (12:17):
The morality police yeah.
Clint (12:19):
I think it's.
I'm assuming you should notallow to do that.
Amber (12:22):
What were you doing on your date that you got stopped
by?
Clint (12:25):
the morality, probably on their way to a marionette
puppet show.
Amber (12:27):
PDA happening Got stopped by some puppet PDA.
John decides that he wants totake a girl to a date at the
drive-in theater, but his futurein-laws and her siblings load
up in a station wagon and comealong.
The movie at the drive-in wasendless love and there was a
love scene which made both of uscringe, so uncomfortable to sit
(12:50):
through.
The reactions of her parentswas more uncomfortable.
Clint (12:54):
No, oh, that's bad.
Amber (12:57):
It's really bad, poor John.
I'm so sorry about that.
Clint (13:00):
Yes, that's the worst.
This one just says dictionarybrought on our first date.
I could, I could only imaginethat's awesome.
All right, what you got.
Come on, bonnie, give me a goodone.
Amber (13:15):
Went to high school prom dinner after great start Wait.
Did not have enough money fordessert, had to send it back.
Clint (13:23):
Wait what?
Amber (13:24):
No, you're like, like we'll have this cheesecake, and
they bring it.
I'm like, oh, we can't pay forthis.
Clint (13:32):
I'll take the tiramisu for two.
Make that one.
That's actually zero.
Amber (13:40):
Oh man, yeah, that's fun.
You got any more.
Clint (13:43):
No, I'm tapped over here.
You got one more, I got onemore.
Amber (13:46):
Okay, we signed up to run a half marathon together.
That's not a date, that's work.
When we got to the race thatmorning, I realized I forgot my
shoes.
We rushed back to get them andnearly missed the race.
In the end, we had to parkabout a mile from the starting
line, so we ended up runningabout 14 miles together.
Wow, that was.
That was fun.
That's some people's idea offun.
Clint (14:06):
I don't think I would say .
Amber and I learned early on inour marriage to not try to
teach your spouse how to workout or how to play an instrument
If you want to remain married.
Amber (14:20):
Yeah, that's a wish I would have known.
You can't teach your spouse,like I want to learn how to play
guitar, but he's not the one toteach me.
Clint (14:25):
No, I'm like just do it like this.
She's like I, I'm trying.
We have some friends that likelike I'm a personal trainer, I'm
a train my wife.
I'm like yeah, you should notdo that, that's a bad, that's a
bad idea.
Yeah, we should run a five Ktogether.
It's is a five.
How far is a five K?
K is a thousand three point onemiles.
(14:48):
Oh, I could do a five K youcould do a five, you could go
three point one miles Maybe.
How many miles did we do atDisney, I know?
Amber (14:54):
on an average Disney day?
How about?
I was probably about 12 miles.
Clint (14:58):
Yeah at Disneyland, yeah, Okay, so, speaking of which,
amber and I, we we love goingday dates together.
That's kind of the thing thatwe do with our kids in the age
that they are, with them beingat school.
Friday's my day off, and so wehave this thing called Freedom
Friday.
We are free, lord, thank you.
We're set free from childrenFreedom Fridays.
We used to always plansomething to do fun together.
(15:20):
Amber and I used to live inWalt Disney World.
We did a whole series aboutWalt Disney World on the podcast
.
Amber (15:25):
I was funny when you say that Like we didn't live in like
Cinderella's castle, but likewe lived 15 minutes from Disney.
Clint (15:31):
That's pretty much Walt Disney World, but we used to go
there all the time.
So Freedom Friday for us was wewould just like pull up the
Disney World app and pick likewhich part we were going to go
to on Freedom Friday and like wewould go ride some rides and do
some fun stuff.
Anybody that's like a Disneynerd kind of knows you have like
the Disney app and you get allof the things and your pictures
are there and you get your fastpasses.
So our kids had the app ontheir phones too, so they'd be
(15:54):
sitting in like math class andthey'd get an alert.
They're like well, here's apicture of mom and dad on
haunted mansion.
Hope they're having a great day.
Amber (16:01):
And we'd always be like yeah.
Clint (16:05):
Like knowing that the picture was going to go to the
kids, but I think it's probablyone of the best things that we
ever instituted.
As far as like time together inmarriage is having that Freedom
Friday and just trying to findsome kind of adventure to go on.
Amber (16:17):
For sure.
So tonight you know we'retalking about date night and why
it's important to date yourspouse.
You know, because life getscrazy and busy and you have kids
in there and it gets evenbusier, and so you know going on
regular dates is funny.
Preparing for this I was likereading articles and stuff like
that, and there was a surveythat was taken that said that
couples that go on regular datesare more likely to not split up
(16:40):
like duh.
Clint (16:42):
But you know I mean simple as it is depends on what
you do because, listen, you aretoo competitive when we play
putt putt.
Amber (16:50):
I am not, I just win.
That doesn't make mecompetitive, that means being
good.
Clint (16:54):
Okay, okay, all right.
Amber (16:56):
You're competitive because you're mad that I'm
winning.
That's what it is.
Clint (17:00):
Okay, this may be true.
There's like a cheat code thatshe's doing when we go play putt
putt.
Amber (17:06):
Give me this one thing.
I'm like.
It's the one thing that I'mgood at.
Clint (17:10):
You are ridiculously good at putt putt.
You should like go on tour toplay putt putt.
Do they have that?
I think they have that, Sorry.
Amber (17:18):
Austin Ridge Church.
I can't lead worship anymore.
I'm going on a putt putt tourWhere's Amber, I thought she was
singing this week.
Clint (17:24):
No, she's in Las Vegas Puttin' it up, gonna bring home
the big prize money.
Amber (17:30):
No, I'm not competitive.
Anyway, going on regular datenights.
You know, when you go on a date, it allows you to remember the
things that you loved about yourspouse.
You know why you guys fell inlove in the first place.
He's funny, he's charming, Allthat kind of stuff.
Keep going.
No, that's I'm done.
Clint (17:45):
That was a short list.
Short list, you know okay.
Amber (17:48):
It removes the distractions right, because I
think sometimes us with kidslike kids can.
Clint (17:53):
Mom can be when you're trying to have a conversation
with your spouse and you'retrying to tell them something
important.
Mom, where are my shoes?
Amber (18:01):
Yeah.
Clint (18:02):
Where are my shoes, mom?
Amber (18:04):
Where are?
Clint (18:04):
my shoes.
Listen every morning when weget all of our kids ready for
school.
Why is it such a big surprisethat you have to brush your
teeth and put on your shoes?
Why is it a big surprise?
Why do you need me to monitorthat?
To explain to you Did you brushyour teeth?
We'll know.
Amber (18:22):
We literally have to ask that every single morning, did
you brush your teeth?
Clint (18:26):
Yeah, did you brush your teeth and put on deodorant?
We're trying to do a service toour community, yeah.
Amber (18:33):
Yeah, and then you know, date Night promotes intimacy.
It gives you opportunity tohave conversations with each
other without being interrupted,and you know it's a good thing.
Clint (18:43):
I agree.
You know, I think one of thebiggest things that Amron and I
learned and we kind of learnedthis over the years especially
like taking opportunities andgoing doing Date Nights together
If any of you guys are familiarwith the Five Love Languages,
we did a podcast episode aboutit so you can go and check it
out.
I think it was in season two,right, or was it season one?
Don't know, don't know, you'rejust here.
Amber (19:03):
I'm just here for them All, right Cool?
Clint (19:05):
Anyway, what are the Five Love Languages?
Again, give them to me.
Amber (19:07):
All right they are quality time acts of service
gifts physical touch and wordsof affirmation Okay, Cool.
Clint (19:15):
So here's kind of what we found and this really helped
our marriage a ton.
You are, by default,predisposed to give love to your
spouse the way that you want toreceive love.
Ultimately, that's like fishingto get that thing from your
spouse.
So, like case in point, my lovelanguage is words of
affirmation.
So I'm constantly telling Amberhey, you're a great mom, you're
(19:38):
an awesome wife.
I'm so grateful for you, you dothis great, you do this great.
And she's like that's reallycool.
Pick your crap up off the floor.
Oh my gosh.
Amber (19:48):
We're not going to get any of that, yeah.
And then I am gifts and so Ilove surprises and I love giving
things and being reallyintentional about what I get.
And I'm not going to be in thehard way about that.
Like I would try to plansurprise parties for him and
he's like I don't want that.
I'm like who doesn't want asurprise party?
What is wrong with you?
Clint (20:07):
But that's just that's how I don't, but I just I really
don't.
But it was one of those thingswhere it's like this dying to
self of I.
I know that Amber likes to besurprised and she likes the
thoughtful things and she likesthe intentionality, and so
instead of just telling her thatshe's a great wife, she's a
great mom, give me the gift ofpicking up your crap.
Yeah, okay, and I'm like justbring it, bring in home flowers.
(20:29):
I don't know if that soundsstereotypical, but it's just
this like surprise of oh man,you're really thinking about me
and that was great.
And it's understanding that ourresponsibility is to make sure
that we are loving our spousethe way that they are wired by
God to receive that love.
And it's so cool how intimacygrows and develops when you're
(20:52):
operating in that way, howconnection grows and develops
when you're operating in thatway.
Amber (20:57):
It's fully a trust thing too, right?
Like if I'm going to give youwhat you need and I'm going to
trust that you're going to alsogive me what I need, like I'm
not going to focus on self andI'm not going to say, well, I'm
because you haven't given mewhat I need.
I'm not giving you that kind ofthing.
But if I just say I'm not goingto worry about that, I'm going
to give you what you need andtrust you.
Clint (21:17):
So Amber and I have been in ministry for 20 years and I
think most people look atpastors and their families in
some ways is like I don't know.
You guys don't ever fight.
Y'all don't ever argue.
Amber (21:31):
He suggested that we do an argument on a podcast.
Clint (21:34):
No, I just know that's not what I said.
Amber (21:36):
No, no, no we should come in here when we're fighting and
like work it out on the podcast.
Clint (21:41):
Yeah, but it would be the worst podcast ever, because
Amber would just sit there likethis whole time.
Am I wrong, though See you'redoing it right now.
Amber (21:54):
What am I supposed to do to that?
Clint (21:56):
I feel so attacked.
Amber (21:57):
You know, when people say you're being defensive and
you're like, no, I'm not, uh-uh,there's nothing good you can
say when someone's saying you'rebeing defensive.
Clint (22:04):
We have like legit arguments and things that we
have to like navigate throughand the thing that we're still
learning.
We've been married for 20 yearsand we have to remind ourselves
literally like this past weekit was a great reminder.
I look at Amber and, first andforemost, are recognized that,
like she's a child of God thatGod loves so much and made so
(22:24):
intentionally and so perfectly,and like God, the creator of the
universe, as ordained by hisprovidence for us to be able to
do this together and I know thatsounds like really christianese
, but I think it like takes youout of the moment of anger and
frustration and lets yourecognize that like not only is
(22:44):
this person someone who is madein God's image, but also this is
someone who God has allowed meto be on this journey, alongside
of which, like I don't, I'mthankful for that.
Remember that about me nexttime that I make you mad and I
don't pick up my crap.
Amber (22:58):
I will remember that.
Thank you, it's documented now.
Clint (23:01):
So it is be like you didn't pick anything up, but
you're made in God's image.
Thumbs up.
Amber (23:07):
God still loves you.
But no, so I reached out.
So our pastors here at AustinRidge, brad and Courtney Thomas,
are amazing people and andtheir life is not easy.
They, they have a special needsdone, but they, over the course
(23:28):
of their marriage, they haveset a regular date night every
single Thursday, I mean sincethey've been married.
And so I reached out to hertoday and just kind of picked
her brain a little bit about howthey did that and why they did
that.
And and she just said, over theyears they've just seen so many
benefits to that and I think ifyou, if you come to awesome
Ridge, you can see that right,like I told her today, that's a
(23:49):
trickle down of your leadership,that you guys have made your
marriage such a priority.
And I just think I I don't knowif anybody has an excuse to not
keep that regular date night.
It would be someone in theirposition, right?
He's a pastor of a large church.
I mean you can only imagine allthe things that he has going on
.
And then she, if you knowCourtney, she does a million
things and volunteers foreverything she can possibly
(24:11):
volunteer for, also taking careof her, her special needs son
and her daughter and they'rejust, they're amazing people but
they prioritize being together.
And she said she's just seen somany benefits in that.
And she just said you know, youprioritize what you value.
You, you find ways to makethings work if it's something
that you value and so valuing mymarriage, it makes us better
(24:34):
parents.
You know she talked about theguilt of her.
Both her kids were reallydifficult.
Anybody here have some somedifficult like colicky crying
kids.
Clint (24:43):
No, I raise my hand.
Amber (24:45):
I know she talked about how difficult it was to to still
keep that date night right.
Your kids are literallyscreaming and you're walking out
the door and poor people arewatching your children know and
you're leaving knowing thatthey're going to scream and cry
probably the whole time.
She said we walk back in thehouse and they're still
screaming.
She's like and I had to justlet go of of that guilt and I
know I can speak for women, butthat mom guilt is so real, right
(25:09):
like you.
Just your kids maybe didn'thave the best day or your house
is a wreck.
You feel like everything'schaos.
But it's date night and you,you invite this baby sitting in
your house and you're like I'mso sorry, the house is messed,
the kids are crazy, but youstill just decided to do it.
Clint (25:23):
You decide to walk out the door yeah, I think there's
always going to be acircumstantial reason to not do
it, but there's always a biggerreason to do it, and the bigger
reason is the investment thatyou're making into your
relationship and also like forthose of you guys that do have
kids, the model that you'resetting for them, for the type
of marriage that they want to beable to have as well.
You're not going to remember onthe third Tuesday of October
(25:47):
why you didn't go on date nightand because laundry was
exploding or whatever, butyou'll remember if you are
driving up a hill and you thinkit's a hill and your truck gets
stuck and it's a pile of manure,if, like if you didn't go on
date night, that night, youdon't get the benefit of that
story yeah that's a good onethat's real good.
Amber (26:06):
That's real good.
Okay, so let's, let's talkabout some fun date night ideas
while we're you know, whilewe're talking about some fun
things, maybe not driving outinto wherever that was, where
there's manure.
Clint (26:16):
I, I'm, I feel like it was definitely in Texas okay, so
I'd mentioned.
Amber (26:21):
I was like reading articles and prep for this and
one of the articles said playboard games together and I was
thinking that no, no, don't dothat, not with you.
Clint (26:31):
Come on, you're so competitive, see right, you're
so competitive.
Who's?
Amber (26:38):
yelling right now.
Clint (26:39):
I'm the victim no, anyway .
Amber (26:43):
So you know, you know your spouse and you know
yourself.
Maybe board games, you know ifit's for you, that's great.
If you can play monopoly andnot just completely try to
dominate each other, thenawesome can we, can we talk
about monopoly for a second?
Clint (26:54):
guys, that game's stressful.
All right, I already have topay my bills.
I know this.
I know rents do like this.
This is true.
Why am I going to play a gameversion of?
It it's roll a dice go to jail,didn't pay your taxes.
Way to go date night.
Amber (27:12):
So yeah, maybe not.
Maybe not monopoly, but youknow, I don't know.
Clint (27:16):
Board games is if you have no board games, board games
are really fun and that'ssomething we we will do as a
family a lot.
I don't know that you and I dothat like for a date night.
Amber (27:24):
Let's, let's bring out some uno cards next time, see
what happens yeah, and itdoesn't have to be a date night,
it can be a day date.
You know, whatever your, a lotof us work and whatever your
schedule looks like, clint and I, like you, like we said, we
have freedom Fridays, but evenif it's just going to get a cup
of coffee together one day aweek, one morning a week or I
don't know, going on a walkafter dinner, we like doing that
.
So, yeah, just some somehelpful guidelines when you know
(27:48):
when dating your spouse, sorecommend setting a regular date
night and doing your best toguard that and keep that sacred
right.
Don't schedule anything elsearound it.
And I know life happens and Iknow kids get sick and I'm, you
know we I know stuff like thathappens.
But making it like we're notgoing to schedule anything else,
we're not going to have anybodyover, we're going to make this
(28:09):
a regular thing.
We've got a sitter lined up oreven you know I was thinking
about it get together with agroup of friends maybe your
small group or neighbors, andand have a co-op and and say,
okay, we'll take your kids onTuesday night so y'all can go
out, and then y'all take ourkids next Tuesday night so that
we can go out or something likethat, like get creative with it.
The fine ways to you know, makeit a priority.
Clint (28:30):
I'll also just say this as far as not only just guarding
it and making sure it's apriority, but like set some
boundaries to not not talk aboutwork.
Maybe not talk about kids andwho threw up on who and what not
throughout the course of man.
One of my favorite comedians ofall times got a, brian Regan.
He's so funny but he just talksabout, like, stressful jobs.
You remember the bit that hedoes about the butterfly garden
(28:53):
curator?
Yeah, it's like you would notbelieve the stressful day I've
had today the yellow one justlightly landing on flowers, like
I don't know what he's up to.
It's so great.
But yeah, I think it just havingsetting aside a safe space to
be able to engage with eachother, it's just really it's
great yeah and do fun things,like do things that make you
(29:14):
laugh and make you have funtogether yeah, we like, we try
to do some adventurous things.
That's kind of where we lean wedidn't swim with sharks or sky
we didn't do that.
Amber (29:24):
Whoever did that, that's pretty epic, that's a high bar
that is a high bar no, marryingthat puppet show.
Clint (29:29):
I don't know where, somewhere between the two?
Yeah if you could get betweenmarried at puppet show and
swimming with sharks andskydiving.
Amber (29:37):
You're doing good.
You're in a good spot yeah,okay.
So we're gonna, we're gonnaflip it really quick let's just
be real we're gonna be real okay, like we'll talk.
Clint (29:47):
You know, brad and Courtney, they have their
Thursdays and we're now, we haveour Fridays.
What if Friday comes along andum, we're just, we're not
feeling it we're not feeling it.
It's not it.
We're in the middle of a, atiff a tiff if you will yeah not
a tiff's treats those are greatthis less sweet.
Amber (30:05):
Yeah, a tiff you don't always feel like dating your
spouse, right?
You could be in the middle of afight and it's date night and
you have to go out anyway, oryou should choose to go out
anyway.
You know like it's hard, likeI'm mad at you.
I don't want to go.
Listen to you too.
No, thank you.
Like.
That sounds like the worstthing in the world.
That was really specific.
Clint (30:25):
Why was that so specific?
Amber (30:27):
Because y'all know what I'm talking about.
Y'all know I don't want tolisten to you, Jim, about Maddie
.
Making noises over there eating.
So like that's hard, it's hardto choose to go anyway.
And Courtney shared a storywith like that they thought
about like taking separate carsand like looking like they went
on day nine and like going todifferent places.
She's like, but we said, okay,we're just going to at least
(30:47):
ride in the same car, I don'tcare what we do whatever.
But by the end of the datenight they ended up being able
to work it out.
Clint (30:53):
So we had a date night.
Yeah, so we were living inOrlando at the time.
I didn't say Disney that time,I just said Orlando.
Thank you, was that better?
Okay, so we were living inOrlando and Amber and I had
scheduled to go on a date.
Specifically, we had madereservations at this really
really nice restaurant, and whenI say really really nice, it
was at Disney still.
Amber (31:15):
But it was in Paris, you know.
Clint (31:18):
Epcot.
It was in Epcot.
Amber (31:20):
It was in Paris, but still.
Clint (31:22):
But we had these reservations and like we had.
Amber (31:25):
We had these reservations for like two months.
Clint (31:27):
Man, it's.
It's so crazy Like looking backon it now because I actually
don't do.
You remember what we werefighting about?
Amber (31:32):
No.
I don't either I just rememberit was a big one.
Clint (31:35):
Yeah, it was one of those .
It was one of those big ones itwas.
Amber (31:37):
you know it was a big one we were.
We were at each other's throatsand we were super angry.
Clint (31:41):
It's probably put put, I bet, I guarantee you.
Amber (31:44):
We are.
Clint (31:45):
I guarantee you we'd play , but no, no, but I mean, we
were, we were really angry andit was one of those like we're
going to cancel, we're going tocancel.
And it was, um, yeah, we kindof came together and said, hey,
we're, we're still going to go,because we have this reservation
and we feel like there'ssomething to be said for us,
prioritizing our relationshipenough to not let the
(32:06):
circumstances of this fight keepus from going to a restaurant
that we had been really wantingto go to for a while.
Amber (32:12):
I think we say that now.
I don't think we said that inthe moment.
Clint (32:15):
Yeah, then why'd we go?
Amber (32:17):
Because the parents, like your parents, already had our
kids and we already had that.
Reservations were like we'rejust going to go, and we fought
the whole way there and wefought walking around Epcot, the
happiest place on earth.
We were not a very happy and wesat down at dinner but we
managed to, like, talk it outand work through whatever was
going on and it ended up beingthis really beautiful night.
(32:38):
And so afterward dinner, um, wewent in the gift shop, uh, in
Paris, uh, epcot Paris and I gotthis little little painting and
I I keep this painting in ourbathroom now, and when I look at
this little painting, it's apainting of little miniature
painting of the Eiffel Tower andthis couple walking towards it.
And so I keep this in ourbathroom as a reminder to myself
(33:00):
that, like, we can get throughanything, that, like, no matter
how hard life gets or how mad Iam at him or how, how mad he is
at me, that we can get throughit.
And then it's beautiful on theother side, right, and you're
stronger for it.
So if you can just push throughthose moments and even when it
comes to date night, if you canjust push through it and and try
(33:21):
to work it out, at least youhave some quiet time to talk to
each other without children, totry to work it out, right?
Clint (33:27):
I love the.
The proximity of where thatpainting lives in our house is
so close to all the stuff that Ileave on the floor that I think
it's just very providentialthat you see the things I leave
on the floor.
Amber (33:41):
You just start like placing it on top of the pile.
That's what I'm going to do.
Clint (33:45):
I'm going to like just take the painting and just stick
it on my pile and you're goingto look at it and just be like,
okay, we'll get through this.
I know we'll get through it.
I am really grateful for thegrace that God has given us to
navigate through some of these,these things, and it is, I mean,
seriously.
I remember walking around Epcot, I remember fighting, I
(34:08):
remember being frustrated witheach other, but it's so crazy
like I don't remember what itwas or what it was about and
like, looking back now, thatjust makes it seem so trivial in
comparison to the, the callingthat we have to be married to
each other.
Amber (34:24):
Yeah.
Clint (34:25):
And I think it's like being able to remove yourself
from that moment for just asecond in the midst of it is so
much easier said than done, butremoving yourself from that
moment and just taking a secondto gain perspective is just so
helpful.
Amber (34:39):
Yeah, and I think I think , as you said, we're called to
be together.
I think that's super importantin our mentality and our
marriage.
That, like I'm called to beyour wife, that's part of my
part of my calling that God'sgiven me.
He put us together as husbandand wife, as a team.
So keeping that team mentality,keeping that like this, is a
calling that I have, and soGod's going to equip me with
(35:01):
what I need in order to be yourwife, and vice versa.
Clint (35:05):
Yeah.
Amber (35:06):
If we both keep ourselves in that place where we're
asking God for that.
Clint (35:11):
I just thought of another crazy date story.
Amber (35:13):
Oh.
Clint (35:13):
It just came to the top of my head because I was
thinking about walking aroundEpcot.
Yeah, Most of man, our livesreally revolved around theme
parks a lot.
What does that say about us?
Amber (35:23):
That we like.
Are we adults?
Clint (35:25):
Yes, Okay, All right, Cool, All right.
We are.
So, Amber and I, right when wegot married I'm talking like
right when we got married wemoved down to Florida and we
lived on the East coast ofFlorida and at the time we were
we were too poor to go see amovie together for date night.
But somebody had given us as awedding gift annual passes to
(35:47):
universal studios.
So we would just go touniversal studios and ride,
rides and go walk around andstuff.
Amber (35:52):
We used to go a lot and we also drove there in a car
Someone gave us.
Clint (35:56):
That's true.
Amber (35:56):
Our car broke down.
Clint (35:57):
Lots of blessings and we didn't drive on the toll roads
because couldn't afford it.
Man, being married was awesomewhen we started out, it's great.
This was kind of a definingmoment for us.
So we'd been married for, let'ssay, three months, maybe three
or four months, and times weretough.
We had just moved down there, Ihad taken this ministry job at
this little church in Melbourne,florida.
Rent was due at our littleapartment and we we were like I
(36:23):
don't know 400 bucks short.
So at the time, 400 bucks waslike a mountain, yeah, like a
mountain of manure.
Like a mountain of manure.
You knew what you were going tosay.
Yeah, you knew it was coming.
So it was like it was justimpossible for us.
And so I'm sitting on the couch.
When I say couch, I mean futonthat we had when we were 20
years old and just married.
So I'm sitting, I'm sittingthere thinking like, and I'm
(36:44):
praying, I'm like, god, listen,like you've blessed me with this
marriage, amron.
I just got married.
Like we're strugglingfinancially, like what are you
going to do?
What can I do?
And I y'all.
It's one of the few times thatI just really felt like the Lord
had something so clear a pathset for us.
For that night I just felt likeGod said I want you to take
your wife on a date.
And I was like, okay, mike,check.
(37:06):
I don't think you heard me whenI said we don't have any money,
what am I supposed to do?
So the one free thing that wecould do was go up to universal
because it was free.
So we go and we we decide let'sgo.
You know, we got like I don'tknow 30 bucks to go and eat at
Margaritaville, which that placewas great Split a cheeseburger.
Split a cheeseburger in paradiseat Margaritaville.
(37:28):
Rip Jimmy Buffett.
We miss you.
We go when we're eating atMargaritaville and somebody sees
us sitting over there and it'sjust one of those like kind
people that says, hey, we'regoing to pay for that young
couple's meal.
And I thought it was just likethe sweetest thing ever and it
was just so cool and it was likethis affirmation of like hey,
god, you knew that that wasgoing to happen for us.
Like how, how cool thatsomebody paid for a meal.
Well, if that wasn't enough, wewalk outside of Margaritaville.
(37:51):
We're holding hands.
You were walking around, it's agood night, it's pretty outside
, by God's providence, andinevriated individual started
throwing hundred dollar billsoff the balcony of
Margaritaville.
And I kid you, not literally,he's just up there going hey,
everybody down there, and startswhipping out hundoes and
(38:12):
chucking them off.
So I go grab me four of themand we go back home, we pay rent
.
Amber (38:18):
Yeah, we did, yeah, we did Seriously that happened.
Clint (38:26):
And y'all I.
It was just this specificpicture where I'm just like okay
, god, as silly as that is, it'sraining money.
It's raining money, like assilly as that is.
Like you told me to take mywife on a date night and I did,
even though the circumstancessaid it was impossible when we
couldn't do it.
Like God's providence, he justhad our marriage in mind.
(38:49):
And not only that, but he knewexactly what we needed and I'm
I'm so thankful for that.
But that really did set thecourse and, like every year, I
go and sit under that balcony atMargaritaville and I just I got
a bucket.
I'm just waiting, waiting onthat guy to come back.
Amber (39:05):
Those margaritas hit real hard.
Clint (39:07):
Yeah, I did.
I'm thankful, that was so funny.
Amber (39:11):
All right, wrap us up in praying about what to talk about
tonight, I kept feeling likePsalm 51 to restore to me the
joy of your salvation andapplying that to our marriage.
I was just thinking about, youknow, making that a prayer that
God would restore to me the joyof my wedding vows, that God
would restore to me the joy ofwhen we were getting married.
(39:35):
You know, when we were firstdating and how exciting the
world was and event.
You know, we were so poor, butwith us against the world, and
just, you know, life happens andyou sort of forget that feeling
and you forget that, what, whatall that was about.
And so that's just that's myprayer for me and I hope that
helps you that you know, makethat your prayer that restored
to me the joy of my wedding vows, that on that day I stood in
(39:57):
front of my friends and myfamily and I made a covenant to
you that said that I was goingto love you, for better or for
worse, for sickness.
You know, in sickness andhealth, and crap on the floor or
crap hung up where it'ssupposed to go, that's what I
committed to do.
So that's that's my prayer aswe continue in our marriage that
we would make that you knowwhat we're about.
Clint (40:17):
Yeah, that's so good.
I'm thankful for that to youand I think that's a great.
That's a great thing for us toall challenge ourselves to do is
to to remember that and praythat God would restore that joy
to us in the moments where wedon't have it.
It is a joy being married to you.
Same, I like being married toyou.
Go team, all right guys.
Thank you all so much for beinghere tonight.
Thanks for being on the pod.
(40:37):
You guys are awesome, yeah, hey, so for for everybody, we have
a little, a little resource.
Music is a big deal to Amberand I.
We just love good music, andgood music for us pretty much is
anything that was written atleast 30 years ago or more.
Amber (40:55):
That's the kind of stuff that we listen to 30 years ago
was like 1990.
Clint (40:58):
So, oh, no, oh, no, yeah.
So 40 years, wow, yeah, I feelvery attacked.
Okay, wow, man, okay, anyway.
So the playlist we actuallymade a playlist on Spotify and
so you can, you can find it.
We'll post a link to it as wellon wishpodcast, on Instagram.
(41:19):
But it's just a wish.
I would have known date nightplaylist and it's got a bunch of
really good jams on it, and sowe want to encourage you guys.
Next time you go out on a date,fire the thing up, listen to
some Whitney Houston, it'll getyou going.
Yeah, it's good stuff.
All right, sweet.
That's it guys.
Thanks so much for being here.
We appreciate y'all.
Wish I would have known isrecorded in the beautiful hill
(41:39):
country of Austin, texas, thelive music capital of the world.
Follow us on Instagram, atwishpodcast, and stop by to say
hi.
We like it when people say hi.
Thank you, eddie and theincredible and wonderful Melody.
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