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!
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!
Welcome to the Wish I Would've Known podcast.
Amber:I'm Clint and I'm Amber, and we've been married for almost 20 years.
Clint:And in this 20 years we've gained a lot of wisdom and found ourselves in the middle of some pretty crazy stories.
Amber:And now we want to share those things with you.
Clint:Here's some stuff that we wish we would have known. All right, hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of Wish I Would've Known. We are live, everybody, we're excited. How fun is this.
Amber:So fun, we're here at Austin Ridge Bible Church for date night.
Clint:Date night. This is the weirdest date night. That's probably not true. I was gonna say it's the weirdest date night I've ever been on, but it's definitely not.
Amber:Oh yeah, what do you think is our weirdest?
Clint:Oh, I don't know, but I got a couple stories that we're about to tee up here, in a minute. Some of the most disastrous ones, for sure. Yeah, anyway, so guys wish I would have known. We're on season three. We've already gone through a couple different things throughout the course of this season. Last episode we talked a little about AI.
Amber:Yeah, we talked a lot about AI.
Clint:And ultimately it ended in Amber and I wanted a recorded record in case AI ever becomes sentient, that they know that we're like for them.
Amber:We're friends.
Clint:Like we are on your side. Amber is the person that she'll ask Siri to do something and she'll say thank you.
Amber:I always thank Siri and Google. You guys do that you just you're polite right yeah?
Clint:You're, like Google said, a timer for Blankety Blank. She's like timer set for Blank. Thank you.
Amber:Yeah, you just say thank you.
Clint:Thank you, Just in case you get feelings and you have ideas of your own.
Amber:remember me on one of the goodness, I'm nice to you, exactly, all right.
Clint:So to you, let's talk a little bit about date night.
Amber:All right. So we're here for date night. All the couples are here together. We're here together and we're here to talk about the importance of dating your spouse. A lot of us have been married for a long time. Even if you've been married for a short time, you start out dating as before you get married and then, as you get married and you have kids, it becomes harder and harder to make that a priority. So we just want to talk tonight about what that looks like to make that a priority.
Clint:I feel like a majority of our disastrous date night stories come from a kind of a specific time in our lives. It's like when we had to have babysitters and whatnot?
Amber:Yes, how many of you are in the babysitter phase? Just give a round of applause, yeah.
Clint:Shout out for you guys that are in the babysitter phase right now. So I specifically remember there's one that I can't get out of my head and because it's October and it's spooky season, we're going to talk about this one. So Amar and I are on a date night. The kids are all relatively young. I think it was just the three boys at the time.
Amber:Is this right? No, it was Marit too. It was Marit too.
Clint:We go to dinner. It's great. We haven't had a night out in a while and babysitter calls and she's panicking. Like full on panicking, Like full on panicking. We're like trying to talk her down, 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. All of the kids are upstairs with me under the bed. There's a ghost in your house.
Amber:In the background, the kids are like whimpering and we're like, oh my gosh.
Clint:Like what are you talking about? And so first of all, we're like no, there's not. What does it matter with you? Yeah?
Amber:But then we ended up having to go home because the kids were so freaked out about it.
Clint:Like imagine being in a restaurant. You're like check, like what's what's the matter? Like well, there's a ghost in my house in my house Got to go home and deal with that.
Amber:So we get home and come to find out Obviously, spoiler alert there is no ghost. The ceiling fan in our bedroom was making a noise.
Clint:Like a.
Amber:Yeah, that was the ghost, so that ruined our date night.
Clint:Yeah, and so, needless to say, amber's mom never babysat for us again.
Amber:It was not my mother. That would be so funny if it was.
Clint:We didn't use that babysitter ever again. But yeah, I like I remember those seasons where life is so busy and so so many times what you're eating is like a leftover peanut butter and jelly sandwich that your kid didn't finish. Going on a date night is such a big deal, so to have them like be ruined is kind of a bummer.
Amber:Yeah, our youngest mayor she was. She was a tough one Well, it was is but she loves you, mary, when she was little we love you.
Clint:It's gonna, Mary, it's gonna. You're amazing. Hey, Mary, it's gonna listen to this in like 10 years.
Amber:You can do great things, so you're strong-willed and that's awesome, right? So when she was little, she just would not go to bed, like she was the hardest to put to bed, even for me, and so I would tell babysitters that like you're gonna have a hard time back. And so there we were at a football 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 has to go to bed. So an hour later she's like Mayor wants to wear a bathing suit to bed. I'm like, first of all, why are we still talking about this? I don't care, that's fine, let her wear a bathing suit, just make her go to bed. We get home from the game at probably 1 am.
Clint:It had to be like 1 am.
Amber:Football game. We get home and we're like how'd it go? And she's like that's good. She went to bed probably about 30 minutes ago and I was like what she's like wearing a mermaid tail.
Clint:Yeah, like she's under a tent, like a blanket fort.
Amber:I don't care, just make her go to sleep.
Clint:Yeah, I know that's so crazy. Oh, do you remember when we weren't going to talk about this one? But now we're going to.
Amber:OK.
Clint:Because I like to rabbit trail. What was the situation where we got called because one of the kids threw up and the babysitter's like hey, it was Isaac. So we had a puker, isaac's a puker. I don't know why he had acid reflux. He had reflux so bad, but when he was a baby imagine. So we had twin boys. Jack at the time was two years old, and so we would sit all of them in their car seats three car seats across the back of our SUV at the time and Isaac would have acid reflux and Jack can't deal with it. He can't, just can't, and he has the worst gag reflex ever. So Isaac would spit up and then Jack would try to announce it to the rest of the car in his little two and a half, three year old voice. He'd be like mom, dad, isaac spit, isaac spit, and he just, he just can't, he just can't.
Amber:So yeah, we get 17 years on, we still do that all the time.
Clint:Yeah, we get a call from a babysitter and she's like, hey, Isaac, Isaac threw up. And we're like, yeah, he does that. No, you need to come home. We're like, no, no, no, it's okay, you know we're going to stay for dinner. She's like, no, he threw up all in my hair.
Amber:She had this like super long red hair. It was beautiful and, yeah, she never baby.
Clint:She probably has a podcast about that now, where she's like been going through therapy.
Amber:Yeah, she probably does. She got puked on by this kid. Wish I would have known that kid was a puker. That's her podcast. Yeah, that kid was a puker. We have another puked story.
Clint:Let's go two for two on the puked stories. Bring it, bring it.
Amber:No, this was not necessarily a day. I think we we have met a couple at church and we're like, oh, we want to be like couple friends and maybe do some couple dates, and so we went out with you know that season in life where you're just so desperate for like other other, like adult humans, to hang out with.
Clint:Yeah, yeah that season.
Amber:So we ended up going to lunch with him after church to like sort of you know, see if we vibe and that kind of thing. But we had our kids with us and yeah, I think it was Isaac again.
Clint:Of course it was.
Amber:Thank you, isaac, for listening to this. He ate something and then ended up throwing up and I, I do you, moms, do this. I caught it in my hands. Why do we do that?
Clint:Why.
Amber:Why is that my reaction?
Clint:I point the child away from me, yeah.
Amber:And I'm like here, let me catch it yeah.
Clint:What's you gonna do with it? Yeah so we, I don't know.
Amber: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:Okay.
Amber:There's hands in the room for podcast listeners. Yeah, but yeah. So I, yeah, caught it in my hands and we didn't. We didn't hang out with him again either.
Clint:Yeah, they, they. They didn't choose us.
Amber:All right, so what we did we didn't get the bachelor rose. No, we didn't.
Clint:We'll be couple of friends with them. They're like, oh yeah, that's that's, that's the pukey family we're not friends with them.
Amber:That lady is a weird. So what we did for all you podcast listeners is, before we started the podcast, we went around the room and had everybody write down some crazy date night stories, so we just shared some of ours, but we want to share some of yours, so do you want to go first?
Clint:Okay, Um, yeah, okay, so I haven't, we haven't read any of these yet, so we're going to have to just kind of react to these, like do we have a bleep button ready, or something?
Amber:Hopefully. No, okay, all right.
Clint: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 truck started to sink, recognized it was a large pile of manure. Wow, wow, that's the crappiest date. That's amazing. My date, which is now my wife worked out, got in the back for weight.
Amber:That's a lovely first date.
Clint:I'm a needy how much do you? Weigh how many to get in the back and weigh us down so we could get out. And the tire spun so she got covered in manure, oh my goodness. And then she. And then she chose to help clean my truck instead of going to a fancy party.
Amber:Whose story is this?
Clint:Yeah, a big, big shout out that way to go.
Amber:What a great story. Let's say an applause for your wife.
Clint:That's the crappiest date night story ever. That's fantastic.
Amber:Here's one. We went out to dinner with a little crash, which means a child tagging along and our son fell at the place Gap at dinner. I ran towards him and fell, while 34 weeks pregnant. No we had to go to the hospital and our second child was born, making our boys three years almost to the minute apart.
Clint:No way. So, like you, just involuntarily go into labor on date night.
Amber:On date night.
Clint:Oh man, that's a good one. Okay, this one, wow, wow, this one just says Marionette puppet show for wedding anniversary. I have so many questions. I have so so many questions in my head.
Amber:I just picture the husband like setting it up in the living room, like have I got something for you?
Clint:Can we? Can we go to Paris for anniversary? No, I've taken care of everything, you just wait.
Amber: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 on the beach, surfing in Saus shark and skydiving in the next day.
Clint:What a day.
Amber:That's, that's a date right there. That's like that one you can plan on but that's like.
Clint:Here's three ways to potentially die on your date.
Amber:That's true, but if you're going to die, you're going to die together.
Clint:I guess. So Having an adventure, I guess not watching a puppet show. Yeah, four ways to die. How does what happened to your husband? Oh well, he did a marionette puppet show for anniversary. We don't, we don't talk about that. That's on 60 minutes. That's a 60 minute special. Now, all right, this one just says stopped by morality police, police in Iran for being on a date. Oh so wow, international travel with some intrigue, but morality police for being on a date.
Amber:The morality police yeah.
Clint:I think it's. I'm assuming you should not allow to do that.
Amber:What were you doing on your date that you got stopped by?
Clint:the morality, probably on their way to a marionette puppet show.
Amber:PDA happening Got stopped by some puppet PDA. John decides that he wants to take a girl to a date at the drive-in theater, but his future in-laws and her siblings load up in a station wagon and come along. The movie at the drive-in was endless love and there was a love scene which made both of us cringe, so uncomfortable to sit through. The reactions of her parents was more uncomfortable.
Clint:No, oh, that's bad.
Amber:It's really bad, poor John. I'm so sorry about that.
Clint:Yes, that's the worst. This one just says dictionary brought on our first date. I could, I could only imagine that's awesome. All right, what you got. Come on, bonnie, give me a good one.
Amber:Went to high school prom dinner after great start Wait. Did not have enough money for dessert, had to send it back.
Clint:Wait what?
Amber:No, you're like, like we'll have this cheesecake, and they bring it. I'm like, oh, we can't pay for this.
Clint:I'll take the tiramisu for two. Make that one. That's actually zero.
Amber:Oh man, yeah, that's fun. You got any more.
Clint:No, I'm tapped over here. You got one more, I got one more.
Amber:Okay, we signed up to run a half marathon together. That's not a date, that's work. When we got to the race that morning, I realized I forgot my shoes. We rushed back to get them and nearly missed the race. In the end, we had to park about a mile from the starting line, so we ended up running about 14 miles together. Wow, that was. That was fun. That's some people's idea of fun.
Clint:I don't think I would say. Amber and I learned early on in our marriage to not try to teach your spouse how to work out or how to play an instrument If you want to remain married.
Amber: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 to teach me.
Clint:No, I'm like just do it like this. She's like I, I'm trying. We have some friends that like like I'm a personal trainer, I'm a train my wife. I'm like yeah, you should not do that, that's a bad, that's a bad idea. Yeah, we should run a five K together. It's is a five. How far is a five K? K is a thousand three point one miles. Oh, I could do a five K you could do a five, you could go three point one miles Maybe. How many miles did we do at Disney, I know?
Amber:on an average Disney day? How about? I was probably about 12 miles.
Clint:Yeah at Disneyland, yeah, Okay, so, speaking of which, amber and I, we we love going day dates together. That's kind of the thing that we do with our kids in the age that they are, with them being at school. Friday's my day off, and so we have this thing called Freedom Friday. We are free, lord, thank you. We're set free from children Freedom Fridays. We used to always plan something to do fun together. Amber and I used to live in Walt Disney World. We did a whole series about Walt Disney World on the podcast.
Amber:I was funny when you say that Like we didn't live in like Cinderella's castle, but like we lived 15 minutes from Disney.
Clint:That's pretty much Walt Disney World, but we used to go there all the time. So Freedom Friday for us was we would just like pull up the Disney World app and pick like which part we were going to go to on Freedom Friday and like we would go ride some rides and do some fun stuff. Anybody that's like a Disney nerd kind of knows you have like the Disney app and you get all of the things and your pictures are there and you get your fast passes. So our kids had the app on their phones too, so they'd be sitting in like math class and they'd get an alert. They're like well, here's a picture of mom and dad on haunted mansion. Hope they're having a great day.
Amber:And we'd always be like yeah.
Clint:Like knowing that the picture was going to go to the kids, but I think it's probably one of the best things that we ever instituted. As far as like time together in marriage is having that Freedom Friday and just trying to find some kind of adventure to go on.
Amber:For sure. So tonight you know we're talking about date night and why it's important to date your spouse. You know, because life gets crazy and busy and you have kids in there and it gets even busier, and so you know going on regular dates is funny. Preparing for this I was like reading articles and stuff like that, and there was a survey that was taken that said that couples that go on regular dates are more likely to not split up like duh.
Clint:But you know I mean simple as it is depends on what you do because, listen, you are too competitive when we play putt putt.
Amber:I am not, I just win. That doesn't make me competitive, that means being good.
Clint:Okay, okay, all right.
Amber:You're competitive because you're mad that I'm winning. That's what it is.
Clint:Okay, this may be true. There's like a cheat code that she's doing when we go play putt putt.
Amber:Give me this one thing. I'm like. It's the one thing that I'm good at.
Clint:You are ridiculously good at putt putt. You should like go on tour to play putt putt. Do they have that? I think they have that, Sorry.
Amber:Austin Ridge Church. I can't lead worship anymore. I'm going on a putt putt tour Where's Amber, I thought she was singing this week.
Clint:No, she's in Las Vegas Puttin' it up, gonna bring home the big prize money.
Amber:No, I'm not competitive. Anyway, going on regular date nights. You know, when you go on a date, it allows you to remember the things that you loved about your spouse. You know why you guys fell in love in the first place. He's funny, he's charming, All that kind of stuff. Keep going. No, that's I'm done.
Clint:That was a short list. Short list, you know okay.
Amber:It removes the distractions right, because I think sometimes us with kids like kids can.
Clint:Mom can be when you're trying to have a conversation with your spouse and you're trying to tell them something important. Mom, where are my shoes?
Amber:Yeah.
Clint:Where are my shoes, mom?
Amber:Where are?
Clint:my shoes. Listen every morning when we get all of our kids ready for school. Why is it such a big surprise that you have to brush your teeth and put on your shoes? Why is it a big surprise? Why do you need me to monitor that? To explain to you Did you brush your teeth? We'll know.
Amber:We literally have to ask that every single morning, did you brush your teeth?
Clint:Yeah, did you brush your teeth and put on deodorant? We're trying to do a service to our community, yeah.
Amber:Yeah, and then you know, date Night promotes intimacy. It gives you opportunity to have conversations with each other without being interrupted, and you know it's a good thing.
Clint:I agree. You know, I think one of the biggest things that Amron and I learned and we kind of learned this over the years especially like taking opportunities and going doing Date Nights together If any of you guys are familiar with the Five Love Languages, we did a podcast episode about it 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're just here.
Amber:I'm just here for them All, right Cool?
Clint:Anyway, what are the Five Love Languages? Again, give them to me.
Amber:All right they are quality time acts of service gifts physical touch and words of affirmation Okay, Cool.
Clint: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 to receive love. Ultimately, that's like fishing to get that thing from your spouse. So, like case in point, my love language is words of affirmation. So I'm constantly telling Amber hey, you're a great mom, you're an awesome wife. I'm so grateful for you, you do this great, you do this great. And she's like that's really cool. Pick your crap up off the floor. Oh my gosh.
Amber:We're not going to get any of that, yeah. And then I am gifts and so I love surprises and I love giving things and being really intentional about what I get. And I'm not going to be in the hard way about that. Like I would try to plan surprise parties for him and he's like I don't want that. I'm like who doesn't want a surprise party? What is wrong with you?
Clint:But that's just that's how I don't, but I just I really don't. But it was one of those things where it's like this dying to self of I. I know that Amber likes to be surprised and she likes the thoughtful things and she likes the intentionality, and so instead of just telling her that she's a great wife, she's a great mom, give me the gift of picking up your crap.
Clint:Yeah, okay, and I'm like just bring it, bring in home flowers. I don't know if that sounds stereotypical, 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 our responsibility is to make sure that we are loving our spouse the way that they are wired by God to receive that love. And it's so cool how intimacy grows and develops when you're operating in that way, how connection grows and develops when you're operating in that way.
Amber:It's fully a trust thing too, right? Like if I'm going to give you what you need and I'm going to trust that you're going to also give me what I need, like I'm not going to focus on self and I'm not going to say, well, I'm because you haven't given me what I need. I'm not giving you that kind of thing. But if I just say I'm not going to worry about that, I'm going to give you what you need and trust you.
Clint:So Amber and I have been in ministry for 20 years and I think most people look at pastors 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:He suggested that we do an argument on a podcast.
Clint:No, I just know that's not what I said.
Amber:No, no, no we should come in here when we're fighting and like work it out on the podcast.
Clint:Yeah, but it would be the worst podcast ever, because Amber would just sit there like this whole time. Am I wrong, though See you're doing it right now.
Amber:What am I supposed to do to that?
Clint:I feel so attacked.
Amber: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're being defensive.
Clint:We have like legit arguments and things that we have to like navigate through and the thing that we're still learning. We've been married for 20 years and we have to remind ourselves literally like this past week it was a great reminder. I look at Amber and, first and foremost, are recognized that, like she's a child of God that God loves so much and made so intentionally and so perfectly, and like God, the creator of the universe, as ordained by his providence for us to be able to do this together and I know that sounds like really christianese, but I think it like takes you out of the moment of anger and frustration and lets you recognize that like not only is this person someone who is made in God's image, but also this is someone who God has allowed me to be on this journey, alongside of which, like I don't, I'm thankful for that. Remember that about me next time that I make you mad and I don't pick up my crap.
Amber:I will remember that. Thank you, it's documented now.
Clint:So it is be like you didn't pick anything up, but you're made in God's image. Thumbs up.
Amber:God still loves you. But no, so I reached out. So our pastors here at Austin Ridge, brad and Courtney Thomas, are amazing people and and their life is not easy. They, they have a special needs done, but they, over the course of their marriage, they have set a regular date night every single Thursday, I mean since they've been married. And so I reached out to her today and just kind of picked her brain a little bit about how they did that and why they did that. And and she just said, over the years they've just seen so many benefits to that and I think if you, if you come to awesome Ridge, you can see that right, like I told her today, that's a trickle down of your leadership, that you guys have made your marriage such a priority.
Amber:And I just think I I don't know if anybody has an excuse to not keep that regular date night. It would be someone in their position, right? He's a pastor of a large church. I mean you can only imagine all the things that he has going on. And then she, if you know Courtney, she does a million things and volunteers for everything she can possibly volunteer for, also taking care of her, her special needs son and her daughter and they're just, they're amazing people but they prioritize being together. And she said she's just seen so many benefits in that. And she just said you know, you prioritize what you value. You, you find ways to make things work if it's something that you value and so valuing my marriage, it makes us better parents. You know she talked about the guilt of her. Both her kids were really difficult. Anybody here have some some difficult like colicky crying kids.
Clint:No, I raise my hand.
Amber:I know she talked about how difficult it was to to still keep that date night right. Your kids are literally screaming and you're walking out the door and poor people are watching your children know and you're leaving knowing that they're going to scream and cry probably the whole time. She said we walk back in the house and they're still screaming. She's like and I had to just let go of of that guilt and I know I can speak for women, but that mom guilt is so real, right like you. Just your kids maybe didn't have the best day or your house is a wreck. You feel like everything's chaos. But it's date night and you, you invite this baby sitting in your house and you're like I'm so sorry, the house is messed, the kids are crazy, but you still just decided to do it.
Clint:You decide to walk out the door yeah, I think there's always going to be a circumstantial reason to not do it, but there's always a bigger reason to do it, and the bigger reason is the investment that you're making into your relationship and also like for those of you guys that do have kids, the model that you're setting for them, for the type of marriage that they want to be able to have as well. You're not going to remember on the third Tuesday of October why you didn't go on date night and because laundry was exploding or whatever, but you'll remember if you are driving up a hill and you think it'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, you don't get the benefit of that story yeah that's a good one that's real good.
Amber:That's real good. Okay, so let's, let's talk about some fun date night ideas while we're you know, while we're talking about some fun things, maybe not driving out into wherever that was, where there's manure.
Clint:I, I'm, I feel like it was definitely in Texas okay, so I'd mentioned.
Amber:I was like reading articles and prep for this and one of the articles said play board games together and I was thinking that no, no, don't do that, not with you.
Clint:Come on, you're so competitive, see right, you're so competitive. Who's?
Amber:yelling right now.
Clint:I'm the victim no, anyway.
Amber:So you know, you know your spouse and you know yourself. Maybe board games, you know if it's for you, that's great. If you can play monopoly and not just completely try to dominate each other, then awesome can we, can we talk about monopoly for a second?
Clint:guys, that game's stressful. All right, I already have to pay my bills. I know this. I know rents do like this. This is true. Why am I going to play a game version of? It it's roll a dice go to jail, didn't pay your taxes. Way to go date night.
Amber:So yeah, maybe not. Maybe not monopoly, but you know, I don't know.
Clint:Board games is if you have no board games, board games are really fun and that's something we we will do as a family a lot. I don't know that you and I do that like for a date night.
Amber:Let's, let's bring out some uno cards next time, see what happens yeah, and it doesn't have to be a date night, it can be a day date. You know, whatever your, a lot of us work and whatever your schedule looks like, clint and I, like you, like we said, we have freedom Fridays, but even if it's just going to get a cup of coffee together one day a week, one morning a week or I don't know, going on a walk after dinner, we like doing that. So, yeah, just some some helpful guidelines when you know when dating your spouse, so recommend setting a regular date night and doing your best to guard that and keep that sacred right. Don't schedule anything else around it.
Amber:And I know life happens and I know kids get sick and I'm, you know we I know stuff like that happens. But making it like we're not going to schedule anything else, we're not going to have anybody over, we're going to make this a regular thing. We've got a sitter lined up or even you know I was thinking about it get together with a group of friends maybe your small group or neighbors, and and have a co-op and and say, okay, we'll take your kids on Tuesday night so y'all can go out, and then y'all take our kids next Tuesday night so that we can go out or something like that, like get creative with it. The fine ways to you know, make it a priority.
Clint:I'll also just say this as far as not only just guarding it and making sure it's a priority, but like set some boundaries to not not talk about work. Maybe not talk about kids and who threw up on who and what not throughout the course of man. One of my favorite comedians of all times got a, brian Regan. He's so funny but he just talks about, like, stressful jobs. You remember the bit that he does about the butterfly garden curator? Yeah, it's like you would not believe the stressful day I've had today the yellow one just lightly landing on flowers, like I don't know what he's up to. It's so great.
Clint:But yeah, I think it just having setting aside a safe space to be able to engage with each other, it's just really it's great yeah and do fun things, like do things that make you laugh and make you have fun together yeah, we like, we try to do some adventurous things. That's kind of where we lean we didn't swim with sharks or sky we didn't do that.
Amber:Whoever did that, that's pretty epic, that's a high bar that is a high bar no, marrying that puppet show.
Clint:I don't know where, somewhere between the two? Yeah if you could get between married at puppet show and swimming with sharks and skydiving.
Amber:You're doing good. You're in a good spot yeah, okay. So we're gonna, we're gonna flip it really quick let's just be real we're gonna be real okay, like we'll talk.
Clint:You know, brad and Courtney, they have their Thursdays and we're now, we have our Fridays. What if Friday comes along and um, we're just, we're not feeling it we're not feeling it. It's not it. We're in the middle of a, a tiff a tiff if you will yeah not a tiff's treats those are great this less sweet.
Amber:Yeah, a tiff you don't always feel like dating your spouse, right? You could be in the middle of a fight and it's date night and you have to go out anyway, or you should choose to go out anyway. You know like it's hard, like I'm mad at you. I don't want to go. Listen to you too. No, thank you. Like. That sounds like the worst thing in the world. That was really specific.
Clint:Why was that so specific?
Amber:Because y'all know what I'm talking about. Y'all know I don't want to listen to you, Jim, about Maddie.
Amber:Making noises over there eating. So like that's hard, it's hard to choose to go anyway. And Courtney shared a story with like that they thought about like taking separate cars and like looking like they went on day nine and like going to different places. She's like, but we said, okay, we're just going to at least ride in the same car, I don't care what we do whatever. But by the end of the date night they ended up being able to work it out.
Clint:So we had a date night. Yeah, so we were living in Orlando at the time. I didn't say Disney that time, I just said Orlando. Thank you, was that better? Okay, so we were living in Orlando and Amber and I had scheduled to go on a date. Specifically, we had made reservations at this really really nice restaurant, and when I say really really nice, it was at Disney still.
Amber:But it was in Paris, you know.
Clint:Epcot. It was in Epcot.
Amber:It was in Paris, but still.
Clint:But we had these reservations and like we had.
Amber:We had these reservations for like two months.
Clint:Man, it's. It's so crazy Like looking back on it now because I actually don't do. You remember what we were fighting about?
Amber:No. I don't either I just remember it was a big one.
Clint:Yeah, it was one of those. It was one of those big ones it was.
Amber:you know it was a big one we were. We were at each other's throats and we were super angry.
Clint:It's probably put put, I bet, I guarantee you.
Amber:We are.
Clint:I guarantee you we'd play, but no, no, but I mean, we were, we were really angry and it was one of those like we're going to cancel, we're going to cancel. And it was, um, yeah, we kind of came together and said, hey, we're, we're still going to go, because we have this reservation and we feel like there's something to be said for us, prioritizing our relationship enough to not let the circumstances of this fight keep us from going to a restaurant that we had been really wanting to go to for a while.
Amber:I think we say that now. I don't think we said that in the moment.
Clint:Yeah, then why'd we go?
Amber:Because the parents, like your parents, already had our kids and we already had that. Reservations were like we're just going to go, and we fought the whole way there and we fought walking around Epcot, the happiest place on earth. We were not a very happy and we sat down at dinner but we managed to, like, talk it out and work through whatever was going on and it ended up being this really beautiful night. And so afterward dinner, um, we went in the gift shop, uh, in Paris, uh, epcot Paris and I got this little little painting and I I keep this painting in our bathroom now, and when I look at this little painting, it's a painting of little miniature painting of the Eiffel Tower and this couple walking towards it. And so I keep this in our bathroom as a reminder to myself that, like, we can get through anything, that, like, no matter how hard life gets or how mad I am at him or how, how mad he is at me, that we can get through it. And then it's beautiful on the other side, right, and you're stronger for it.
Amber:So if you can just push through those moments and even when it comes to date night, if you can just push through it and and try to work it out, at least you have some quiet time to talk to each other without children, to try to work it out, right?
Clint:I love the. The proximity of where that painting lives in our house is so close to all the stuff that I leave on the floor that I think it's just very providential that you see the things I leave on the floor.
Amber:You just start like placing it on top of the pile. That's what I'm going to do.
Clint:I'm going to like just take the painting and just stick it on my pile and you're going to 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 the grace 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 remember being frustrated with each other, but it's so crazy like I don't remember what it was or what it was about and like, looking back now, that just makes it seem so trivial in comparison to the, the calling that we have to be married to each other.
Amber:Yeah.
Clint:And I think it's like being able to remove yourself from that moment for just a second in the midst of it is so much easier said than done, but removing yourself from that moment and just taking a second to gain perspective is just so helpful.
Amber:Yeah, and I think I think, as you said, we're called to be together. I think that's super important in our mentality and our marriage. That, like I'm called to be your wife, that's part of my part of my calling that God's given me. He put us together as husband and wife, as a team. So keeping that team mentality, keeping that like this, is a calling that I have, and so God's going to equip me with what I need in order to be your wife, and vice versa.
Clint:Yeah.
Amber:If we both keep ourselves in that place where we're asking God for that.
Clint:I just thought of another crazy date story.
Amber:Oh.
Clint:It just came to the top of my head because I was thinking about walking around Epcot. Yeah, Most of man, our lives really revolved around theme parks a lot. What does that say about us?
Amber:That we like. Are we adults?
Clint:Yes, Okay, All right, Cool, All right. We are. So, Amber and I, right when we got married I'm talking like right when we got married we moved down to Florida and we lived on the East coast of Florida and at the time we were we were too poor to go see a movie together for date night. But somebody had given us as a wedding gift annual passes to universal studios. So we would just go to universal studios and ride, rides and go walk around and stuff.
Amber:We used to go a lot and we also drove there in a car Someone gave us.
Clint:That's true.
Amber:Our car broke down.
Clint:Lots of blessings and we didn't drive on the toll roads because couldn't afford it. Man, being married was awesome when we started out, it's great. This was kind of a defining moment for us. So we'd been married for, let's say, three months, maybe three or four months, and times were tough. We had just moved down there, I had taken this ministry job at this little church in Melbourne, florida. Rent was due at our little apartment and we we were like I don't know 400 bucks short. So at the time, 400 bucks was like a mountain, yeah, like a mountain of manure. Like a mountain of manure. You knew what you were going to say. Yeah, you knew it was coming. So it was like it was just impossible for us. And so I'm sitting on the couch. When I say couch, I mean futon that we had when we were 20 years old and just married.
Clint:So I'm sitting, I'm sitting there thinking like, and I'm praying, I'm like, god, listen, like you've blessed me with this marriage, amron. I just got married. Like we're struggling financially, like what are you going to do? What can I do? And I y'all. It's one of the few times that I just really felt like the Lord had something so clear a path set for us. For that night I just felt like God said I want you to take your wife on a date. And I was like, okay, mike, check. I don't think you heard me when I said we don't have any money, what am I supposed to do? So the one free thing that we could do was go up to universal because it was free. So we go and we we decide let's go. You know, we got like I don't know 30 bucks to go and eat at Margaritaville, which that place was great Split a cheeseburger.
Clint:Split a cheeseburger in paradise at Margaritaville. Rip Jimmy Buffett. We miss you. We go when we're eating at Margaritaville and somebody sees us sitting over there and it's just one of those like kind people that says, hey, we're going to pay for that young couple's meal. And I thought it was just like the sweetest thing ever and it was just so cool and it was like this affirmation of like hey, god, you knew that that was going to happen for us. Like how, how cool that somebody paid for a meal. Well, if that wasn't enough, we walk outside of Margaritaville. We're holding hands. You were walking around, it's a good night, it's pretty outside, by God's providence, and inevriated individual started throwing hundred dollar bills off the balcony of Margaritaville. And I kid you, not literally, he's just up there going hey, everybody down there, and starts whipping out hundoes and chucking them off. So I go grab me four of them and we go back home, we pay rent.
Amber:Yeah, we did, yeah, we did Seriously that happened.
Clint:And y'all I. It was just this specific picture where I'm just like okay, god, as silly as that is, it's raining money.
Clint:It's raining money, like as silly as that is. Like you told me to take my wife on a date night and I did, even though the circumstances said it was impossible when we couldn't do it. Like God's providence, he just had our marriage in mind. And not only that, but he knew exactly what we needed and I'm I'm so thankful for that. But that really did set the course and, like every year, I go and sit under that balcony at Margaritaville and I just I got a bucket. I'm just waiting, waiting on that guy to come back.
Amber:Those margaritas hit real hard.
Clint:Yeah, I did. I'm thankful, that was so funny.
Amber:All right, wrap us up in praying about what to talk about tonight, I kept feeling like Psalm 51 to restore to me the joy of your salvation and applying that to our marriage.
Amber:I was just thinking about, you know, making that a prayer that God would restore to me the joy of my wedding vows, that God would restore to me the joy of when we were getting married.
Amber:You know, when we were first dating and how exciting the world was and event. You know, we were so poor, but with us against the world, and just, you know, life happens and you sort of forget that feeling and you forget that, what, what all that was about. And so that's just that's my prayer for me and I hope that helps you that you know, make that your prayer that restored to me the joy of my wedding vows, that on that day I stood in front of my friends and my family and I made a covenant to you that said that I was going to love you, for better or for worse, for sickness. You know, in sickness and health, and crap on the floor or crap hung up where it's supposed to go, that's what I committed to do. So that's that's my prayer as we continue in our marriage that we would make that you know what we're about.
Clint:Yeah, that's so good. I'm thankful for that to you and I think that's a great. That's a great thing for us to all challenge ourselves to do is to to remember that and pray that God would restore that joy to us in the moments where we don't have it.
Clint:It is a joy being married to you. Same, I like being married to you. Go team, all right guys. Thank you all so much for being here tonight. Thanks for being on the pod. You guys are awesome, yeah, hey, so for for everybody, we have a little, a little resource. Music is a big deal to Amber and I. We just love good music, and good music for us pretty much is anything that was written at least 30 years ago or more.
Amber:That's the kind of stuff that we listen to 30 years ago was like 1990.
Clint:So, oh, no, oh, no, yeah. So 40 years, wow, yeah, I feel very attacked. Okay, wow, man, okay, anyway. So the playlist we actually made a playlist on Spotify and so you can, you can find it. We'll post a link to it as well on wishpodcast, on Instagram. But it's just a wish. I would have known date night playlist and it's got a bunch of really good jams on it, and so we want to encourage you guys. Next time you go out on a date, fire the thing up, listen to some Whitney Houston, it'll get you 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 is recorded in the beautiful hill country of Austin, texas, the live music capital of the world. Follow us on Instagram, at wishpodcast, and stop by to say hi. We like it when people say hi. Thank you, eddie and the incredible and wonderful Melody.