Be Intentional: A Date Night, A Spring List, and a Divine Moment

This week on The Weekend Joyride, Mac and Rhoni share how one simple, intentional date night turned into something much more meaningful.

What started with a surprise trip to a local Shakespeare performance opens the door to a bigger conversation about being intentional—not just in relationships, but in everyday life.

Then the conversation takes a deeper turn. Rhoni shares a powerful moment from her morning “First 15”—a reminder that focused, intentional time with God can be more meaningful than hours of distracted routine.From there, they highlight fun springtime events around Austin, Fredericksburg, and the Hill Country—perfect ideas for your next date night or family outing.

From there, they highlight fun springtime events around Austin, Fredericksburg, and the Hill Country—perfect ideas for your next date night or family outing.

A light, practical, and meaningful episode about making time matter.

📩 Email: hello@weekendjoyride.com

 📱 Follow along on Facebook

🎟️ Mentioned in This Episode:

• Hill Country Community Theater – https://thehcct.org/
• Rock Box Theater – https://rockboxtheater.com
• Long Center – https://thelongcenter.org
• Bass Concert Hall – https://texasperformingarts.org
• Moody Center – https://moodycenteratx.com
• Round Mountain Cider Mill – https://www.roundmountaincidermill.com/
• Acro-Cats – https://thelongcenter.org/events/the-amazing-acro-cats/

Email us at hello@weekendjoyride.com

Join us on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61583764086694

Transcript

Rhoni 0:11

Welcome to the Weekend Joyr ide.

Mac 0:13

Yeah, welcome. We're glad you're here today. I'm Mac.

Rhoni 0:15

And I'm Rhoni. So I want to start today just by saying that you absolutely surprised me this weekend.

Mac 0:25

Did I hit a home run, honey?

Rhoni 0:27

You absolutely did.

Mac 0:28

Oh, that's good.

Rhoni 0:29

It's not like it was just, oh, that's nice. You did something nice. But where did this kind of surprise even come from?

Mac 0:37

Okay, so what I did was I I was I don't know. I just had the thought. We don't, Rhoni and I, I mean, we rarely celebrate our anniversary. That's a whole long story that we probably told on a previous on a previous episode, but by the time our anniversary happens, which is two days after Christmas, we're usually just like exhausted and we don't want to do anything. We've spent all our money on Christmas, so it's like, well, okay.

Rhoni 1:01

And we're sick of eating.

Mac 1:03

Sick of eating. We don't want to see food anymore. We want to go out. So we generally kind of skip our anniversary. We we we uh acknowledge it. We do it happy anniversary, honey, and things like that. But we always say that we're we're gonna go do our anniversary in July, you know, in the other part of the year. And then we never do that. So so anyway, uh all that to say is that uh a lot of times, or I don't know that I ever have really just taken Rhoni out on a surprise date. I mean, we've been married almost 20 years, and I I've just never done that. I don't even remember doing that when we were dating, yeah.

Rhoni 1:38

You know? I surprised you with things like driving you down to the dam to see the bats that you didn't know really were showing up on the radar.

Mac 1:46

Yeah, right? Things like that.

Rhoni 1:48

Little stuff, but not a date date.

Mac 1:50

Yeah, this was a date. So I called her up from work and I said, Hey, I said, You want to go out Saturday night? And uh she's like, You mean like a date? And I said, Yeah. She said, What do you want to do? I said, I got something, okay? So I had seen uh this uh advertisement at our local community theater for uh an evening with William Shakespeare. And Rhoni has taught William Shakespeare in the classroom for years. I love Shakespeare. She loves Shakespeare. I personally don't understand him much, but but uh Rhoni loves Shakespeare. So I thought, well, this would be fun. And this is kind of a comedy that they were doing that the that the um community theater was doing. They come out and they do some Shakespeare and show you the real thing, and then they have a couple of people off to the side that are supposedly reading out of Shakespeare for Dummies and and you know, clue. It was hilarious. It was funny, yeah. They did a really good job.

Rhoni 2:44

The thing about it is that you did not just ask me to go to a Shakespeare play, but it was the intention behind it. That's what moved me is that you just weren't asking me to go do something, you actually thought about me. You actually knew I would love that.

Mac 3:03

Absolutely.

Rhoni 3:04

And that is honestly going to set the tone for everything we talk about today.

Mac 3:09

Yeah, it is. But I think we should we've talked about being intentional for several weeks now, so that must be something that's that's in our minds. Right. We don't oftentimes don't think about stuff.

Rhoni 3:19

I'm gonna call that Holy Spirit led, just trying to take us into becoming more intentional. So today we're going to talk about date nights. We're gonna talk about springtime in the hill country, things to do around Austin and Fredericksburg, but also something really deeper that the Lord showed me this morning about what it really means to be intentional.

Mac 3:42

Yeah. And you may wonder what what does that even mean, intentional? Well, I think this is a good way to put it. I didn't want that date night just to be another night. We go out a lot, we go out to eat, we do all that. I wanted it to feel different. And it did. I I had the element of surprise. I didn't tell her what I'd done. And she never found out until I told her as we were on our way. And so that was fun. And then to have something that that I really had a good feeling that she would delight in, because we enjoy going to the community theater anyway, uh, but then to see something that she really enjoys, uh, I just had that had that feeling. So it really was an intentional thing that I wanted to do. And I think we all I think we kind of need to start doing that more often.

Rhoni 4:31

And it made me feel very loved because you knew that it would be something that I really loved. And it was sweet to me that you made me feel loved that way. You and I I I'm aware that Mac doesn't like Shakespeare. My favorite movie is Shakespeare in Love, and he just rolls his eyes when I want to watch it again, you know. So so I knew that was just for me. Now I it's like, in a sense, it's like when I go to the Beatles things with you, but I haven't surprised you with that.

Mac 5:04

Yeah.

Rhoni 5:04

I go to the Beatles invasion concerts and and all things Beatles. I go to air shows because he loves those things, but I haven't surprised him with those things. So the element of surprise was very special. Intentional surprise made me feel loved. That's thank you for that.

Mac 5:21

Oh, you're welcome. And and I'm glad you, I'm glad it was such a hit because I'm just glad it made me feel good to to to do that, and then it turned out to be something that you enjoyed so much. That got us thinking about something deeper this morning. You had a a fairly I I'll say profound thing that that uh that you went through. You called me this morning. So you got a minute?

Rhoni 5:54

Yes, I was doing my first 15. We talked about that on the show where Pastor Ray's encouraged us to take the first 15 minutes of the morning to be intentional with God. And that looks like five minutes of prayer, intentional prayer, five minutes of word study, and five minutes of praise. Not to say that this is all we do, but it's a way to kind of turn your focus when you first wake up in the morning toward the word.

Mac 6:23

Yeah, I think it's a great way to start the day.

Rhoni 6:25

And I was doing that. I had done my five minutes of prayer, and I had done actually more reading of the Bible, and I had planned to do my praise when I started getting myself ready, putting on makeup. I tend to listen to something then. So I thought, well, I'll I'll do it then. So I was gonna multitask and do my five minutes of praise, and something happened when the music started playing. I just asked for Siri to play some Phil Wickham music. And what came on was a song called Divine Romance. I almost passed it up because I didn't know that song. Turns out I didn't know it because it's a 20-year-old song that Phil Wickham did. It was called Divine Romance, and I just I didn't hit pause, I just let it play. And I stopped what I was doing and started listening. And that song was precious. It was about having an intentional moment with God. And I knew when he was singing it that I was supposed to stop. I actually heard the still small voice inside say, put your mascara down.

Mac 7:40

Oh.

Rhoni 7:40

And I did. And then I just stopped and I thought, that's right. I can take five minutes to praise my savior. I can take five minutes, or I can take more time than that. So I just stopped and I just got into the flow of listening to the words of that song. It was really precious, and I really felt like that was a moment with the Lord.

Mac 8:57

In the background, why do you think that's a good idea? In the background.

Rhoni 9:00

Or I have a tendency to pray on my way to work because it's convenient. And I began to pull back and think, okay, I see what you're saying. That my five minutes in the morning, intentional and focused, are far more meaningful than when I fit God into the convenience spaces, the nooks and crannies of my life. It was very powerful. And then the next song, what it did to me, I was so drawn in that I went ahead and just continued to worship through the next song, which was Hymn of Heaven. And I love the Hymn of Heaven.

Mac 9:40

Absolutely.

Rhoni 9:40

But interestingly, I know that this was intentional with the Lord because there's a line in there that says, a thousand generations. And on that day we join the resurrection and stand beside the heroes of the faith with one voice, a thousand generations sing, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, forever he shall reign. And on that day we join the resurrection, it's then be tight. That's an important line to me. And this morning when I was praying, I actually did some strong prayer over our family and pronounced a blessing over our family for a thousand generations. So I'd actually used the line a thousand generations. And I thought it was so precious that in this moment when I was being intentional with the Lord, he was intentional back to me and brought up that song. It was like, yes. He was like, Yes, a thousand generations will stand and sing. So that was such a special moment that I felt like we should share with our listeners how powerful intentional moments with your savior can be.

Mac 11:53

And it's different when you think that I mean, you put on your makeup every morning and you turn on the radio or turn on some music and listen and you listen to various things, but this morning you were intentional about it. Other mornings, yes, you turned on the thing, but you didn't give it your full attention. And that's presence.

Rhoni 12:14

Yes.

Mac 12:15

But presence and intentionality are two different things.

Rhoni 12:21

Right. It's the same way that your sweet intentional act for me, which moved me, made me realize that I need to be more intentional with you in the same way. But in that same vein of understanding, the Holy Spirit was prompting to me that He wants that with us as well. Yeah, that's He wants that kind of relationship and intentional time with us as well.

Mac 12:54

We try to fit him into our day. Uh, we pray while we're in the car on the way to work. It's convenient, like you said. And I'm sure he wants that too, but it it doesn't do the same thing in our own hearts as it does when we're being really intentional about it.

Rhoni 13:15

Yes, so I think maybe this week we all just try giving God our full 15 minutes, no multitasking, just the full 15 minutes to begin every day and maybe plan something intentional for someone you love.

Mac 13:33

So that really is the takeaway this week is is be intentional, not only with the people that you love, but with the Lord who loves you. He is intentional with you. I mean, he's always there for us. Uh I've heard it said many times. You know, God's a gentleman. If you decide to wander off one way, he's gonna stop right there and you can come back to him. He's always waiting right there, and he's he's intentional with you, and he's waiting for you. And that's something so powerful about that in being being pursued.

Rhoni 14:04

But that's the thing. He's always waiting, but this morning he pursued.

Mac 14:09

He pursued because you were in a position.

Rhoni 14:11

Because I put myself aside and I intentionally sought him this morning, and he pursued me.

Mac 14:18

He pursued, he saw that, he saw that as an opportunity to come. Yeah, that's really neat. That's precious. Yeah. So think about that this week as you're going around your week. Just little things you can do to make sure that those around you know that you're thinking about them. It's intentional. Yeah.

Rhoni 14:34

Give him your first 15.

Mac 14:36

And be intentional about it.

Rhoni 14:59

It's spring, and even last weekend we went to the one act play with uh our kids and our grandchildren. Oh, yeah. But springtime in the Austin area, there's a lot of stuff going on. And we also know that all throughout the Hill Country, Fredericksburg has rock box theater. That's a fun place. Why don't we share some ideas for date nights right now?

Mac 15:21

Yeah, Fredericksburg does have rock box theater. And we went one time with some friends and it was a lovely evening. I forget what we saw. It was it was like a a throwback concert or something like that. It was like, you know, go see the Steve Miller band, but it wasn't really Steve Miller, it was somebody that played Steve Miller music, but it was really good. And the rock box theater is a kind of a small venue, and it's just off the off Main Street in uh downtown Fredericksburg. And there are shows coming up that are just look they look like a lot of fun. Um some of them like hill country opri. That's that's happening, that's actually happening this weekend. Um other things like a lot of people that I've never heard of, but here's here's a a Chicago tribute, San Antonio Transit, you know, it's a Chicago tribute. Uh, and that would that would be pretty good to go see. So you can get tickets to all that kind of stuff and and uh see what's going on at the rock box theater and check it online. It's rockboxtheater.com online.

Rhoni 16:18

Hey, Austin has some fun, fun date night opportunities. And uh we love going to the Long Center, they have fun, very cultural things going on there. I've been to a couple of operas that I took students to once.

Mac 16:34

That was a ton of fun. Um in fact, to go back on our story about about uh the surprise date that Rhoni and I had, she was convinced we were going to see a Celtic band. And what brought that up is that Rhoni loves river dance. She'd she'll go see river dance like down the street anytime, even if they're just staying at a friend's house or whatever. She loves that kind of dancing. She loved that that Disney, that thing at Disney in Florida that we stopped in, that Irish pub thing where they were dancing and singing, and she loves that. So she found out right away that at a local venue here in town called the Round Mountain Cider Mill, which is a cool place to go for music and stuff like that, too. They have even have some worship nights, too. Um, they had a couple of uh Irish bands or Celtic bands there. So she was convinced that that's where we were going when we instead we were going to Shakespeare. So that's funny. So anyway, Long Center River Dance you've seen there, along with operas.

Rhoni 17:26

So in Austin, there are a couple of fun things going on. Blue Man Group will be in town April 3rd and 4th at Dell Hall. That was our first one of our first dates. You took me to Blue Man Group.

Mac 17:38

They're a hoot if you've not seen Blue Man Group. They're great.

Rhoni 17:41

And then there's also The Whiz.

Mac 17:44

Oh, you know.

Rhoni 17:45

That looks fun, and that's May 12th through the 17th.

Mac 17:48

That's a musical, right? On The Wizard of Oz. Yeah. Okay.

Rhoni 17:51

And there's C.S. Lewis's screw tape letters that will be at Bass Concert Hall on April the 12th.

Mac 17:58

I believe we've seen that too at Bass Hall.

Rhoni 18:01

If you like ballet, there's Ballet Austin, the magic flute, which is May 8th through the 10th. And for the little ones, there's Charlotte's Web that'll be showing up at the Topfort Zach Theater.

Mac 18:14

When you first saw that, you would you went, oh, Charlotte's Web.

Rhoni 18:19

Yeah, it's it's a children's tale. So it's a whole family production. May the 17th. Very beloved story. Bruce Springsteen will be at the Moody Center. I know. Mac just rolled his eyes. Sunday, April 26th. But River Dance Mac is coming April 24th through the 28th.

Mac 18:37

River Dance is coming back. Oh man.

Rhoni 18:42

You need to buy me tickets right now.

Mac 18:45

Aren't we going to be out of town that weekend? No, we're not. We're going to be here.

Rhoni 18:49

So please, can I please can I go to River Dance?

Mac 18:52

That's not that's an intentional act. I love River Dance. She loves River Dance. It's it's in you. And it's like on uh was it St. Patrick's Day? You found yourself didn't have any green on, and you had to go to your change.

Rhoni 19:06

I did. My great-grandmother was Myrtle McLaughlin. I married a McClinahan.

Mac 19:13

You had some Millers. I have some Millers. I had to wear green. Yeah, yeah. I didn't even think about wearing green.

Rhoni 19:20

Now, you're all making fun of me at these places, but I'm gonna say you you already missed Robert Plant at the Moody Theater.

Mac 19:29

That would have been a good show. Yeah. Robert Plant, yeah. You can tell I like to go see some of those shows. In fact, in my radio career, I've probably passed up more shows than I've I've seen, and that's a bunch. You know, I've I used to have a whole bulletin board of tickets that I didn't use. And I think back on some of those shows I could have gone to would have would have been a lot of fun.

Rhoni 19:50

There's also for family, there's the cat and the hat that will be at Bass Concert Hall May 1st. Okay. And then Disney on Ice, April 23rd through the 26th at the H E B Center in Cedar Park. All sorts of fun. All kinds of fun things going on.

Mac 20:05

You know, one thing that I I maybe miss and I don't think about when we don't go to events at places like that, uh like the Bass Concert, Along Center, all that is this the level of professionalism that they have and that they exhibit when they do a a show like that. Um amazing the talent that people have that you don't even realize um you're gonna you're gonna witness. And that's always a a really neat thing. That's why I like to go see musicians play. The ones that are really good, uh they just floor me. Like Trace Bundy. We talked about Trace Bundy. Oh, yeah, he's so good. Yeah, the guitarist. And it's just it's just virtuoso stuff. And uh it's fun to go see that. And that's all, I believe, talent from God, you know. It really is.

Rhoni 20:54

Well, I I have actually saved the best for last here. If you're not doing anything, I guess I can't I can't talk about this with a straight face. I seriously want to go see this. It's called the Amazing Acrocats. It's April 9th through the 20th at Rollins Theater on Riverside. Okay. Okay, so it says that it's an indoor event. Well, of course it is. It's cats.

Mac 21:21

It's cats. It's really cats. Is that right? It's really cats.

Rhoni 21:24

I have to read it to you because it's so funny. So it says the amazing acrocats featured in the Netflix series cat people are coming to Austin. This troupe of trained house cats, all former, all former orphans, rescues, and strays, give a one of a kind 90 minute performance that includes wait for it, riding skateboards, jumping through hoops, ringing bells, balancing on balls, and performing other feats of agility. In acrobatics. The show finale is the only all-cat band in the world. Tuna and the rock cats. The rock cats play guitar, drums, and piano, and they've been joined by the Jazz Cats on saxophone, trumpet, and clarinet.

Mac 22:19

This is a real thing.

Rhoni 22:20

It's a real thing. I could go on. But uh, what to expect, of course, you have to have a ticket.

Mac 22:26

Okay. And you you gotta make sure none of them get out the door when you go.

Rhoni 22:31

You don't want to be hurting cats.

Mac 22:33

Don't let the cat out.

Rhoni 22:34

Don't let the cat out of the bag. Uh-huh. Oh, this is gonna be fun. So, and that's gonna show April 9th at 7 p.m. And it's God, there are a lot of showings the 9th through the 20th. I seriously want to go to that.

Mac 22:49

All right, honey.

Rhoni 22:50

Let's go.

Mac 22:51

Okay. Gonna spend all our money on cat performances. That's hilarious.

Rhoni 22:55

It's gonna be fun.

Mac 22:56

I think it's funny the things that they say that cats are gonna do that are supposed to be amazing, like jump through a hoop. Okay.

Rhoni 23:02

Well, I want to see it.

Mac 23:03

I know. Our cats won't do that, will they? They'll look at you, look at the hoop, and go, eh, I'm sleeping.

Rhoni 23:08

Now, it does say the long center is committed to providing a safe and welcoming environment and will not tolerate demeaning, harassing, or discriminatory conduct directed toward patrons, artists, rental clients, staff, or volunteers. So I guess that also means that you can't have demeaning conduct toward acrocatches.

Mac 23:32

They're not playing at the long time.

Rhoni 23:34

No dog people are allowed at this event.

Mac 23:38

That's gonna be fun. Well, anyway, the point that we're trying to make is there are lots of things that are going on. And I believe at the Long Center and down there on the on the the grassy area in front of the long center between the the building and the river, they they have often have outdoor um concerts and things like that too. So check that out. And uh there's just so much to do.

Rhoni 23:59

So so many ideas for date night.

Mac 24:02

It's easy to be, like we say, intentional about that. Just plan something and and surprise the one you love, uh, even your family. You know, there's stuff in here you can do that's not very expensive, and there's always other stuff you can do that uh that doesn't cost anything. It's fun. Thanks for spending a little time with us today. We appreciate that. If there's one thing we hope you take away with you this week, it's this be intentional. Be intentional with the people you love, and be intentional with the Lord who loves you. Maybe that looks like planning something simple but meaningful for somebody in your life, or maybe it's just giving God your first 15 minutes, fully present, no distractions. Either way, those small intentional moments can make a bigger difference than you think. Certainly did with me. We'd love to hear from you. What's something intentional you're planning this week? You can reach us at hello at weekendjoyride.com. And if you enjoyed the show, share it with a friend, please, or post it on your social. That helps more than anything. This is Mac, and for Rhoni, we'll see you next time on the Weekend Joyride.