Singing the Bible with Randall Goodgame

In this episode of Homeschool Conversations, I sat down with one of our family’s favorite singer-songwriters Randall Goodgame to explore the powerful connection between music, Scripture memory, and family discipleship.

Randall, the creator behind Slugs and Bugs and the Scripture Hymnal, shares how his journey into writing word-for-word Scripture songs began not in a studio, but in his home. Faced with helping his young children memorize Bible verses, he discovered that setting Scripture to music made memorization not only easier, but joyful.

From that simple beginning grew a body of work that has helped countless families hide God’s Word in their hearts.

Randall discusses how music uniquely engages the brain and why songs become such a lasting part of our memory. He explains his songwriting process, including how he chooses Scripture passages and matches musical tone to the meaning of the text. He also shares behind-the-scenes insights into the challenges of turning certain passages into songs, and how those challenges often lead to deeper understanding.

We also dive into the role of joy and humor in the Christian life. Rather than diminishing the seriousness of Scripture, Randall explains how laughter and childlike faith actually reflect a deeper trust in God.

One of the most encouraging parts of this episode is Randall’s honesty about family devotions. Despite creating devotional resources used by families around the world, he openly shares his own struggles and reminds listeners that faithfulness matters more than perfection. Together, we discuss simple, practical ways to build meaningful family rhythms without unrealistic expectations.

If you’ve ever wondered how to help your children remember Scripture, build lasting faith habits, or bring more joy into your family discipleship, this episode is for you.

{This post contains paid links. Please see disclaimer.}

Early Musical Influences That Shaped His Sound

Music was always part of Randall’s story. From childhood piano lessons to teaching himself guitar as a teenager, he followed a natural pull toward songwriting.

“I kept kind of going back to the piano, even though I wouldn’t necessarily play what my lesson was asking me to.”

His influences ranged widely—from Billy Joel and Jimmy Buffett to hymnody and church music—creating the rich and varied musical style listeners recognize today.

How Homeschooling Sparked Scripture Songs

Randall’s journey into Scripture songwriting began at home, in the middle of ordinary homeschooling struggles.

“They were having trouble memorizing their scripture passages… it just seemed like a natural thing to do one day to try to make a melody to help them memorize.”

What happened next surprised him:

“It was like magic watching them remember it because it was to a melody.”

That simple moment became the seed for a lifelong mission—helping families hide God’s Word in their hearts through song.

Why Music Makes Scripture Stick

Music is not just a creative outlet. It’s a powerful tool for memory and discipleship.

“The things that you sing, you remember.”

Randall emphasizes the responsibility this brings:

“You just want it to be beautiful and you want it to be true and worth repeated experiences.”

Because children listen repeatedly, he aims to create songs that are both theologically rich and genuinely enjoyable for the whole family.

The Creative Process Behind Scripture Songs

Randall’s songwriting process begins with Scripture that has already impacted him personally.

“I usually am picking from the passages that I have been studying.”

From there, he seeks to match the tone of the music to the emotional weight of the passage:

“I am looking for music that specifically captures what I’m feeling when I’m reading this passage.”

Whether the tone is urgent, meditative, or celebratory, the goal is alignment between truth and sound.

When Scripture Is Hard to Turn Into Song

Not every passage comes easily.

Some songs take months (or even a year) to complete. Yet even the struggle becomes fruitful:

“The song kind of teaches you as you go where what’s best.”

Through the process, deeper insights into Scripture often emerge.

Joy, Humor, and the Heart of Faith

One of the most distinctive aspects of Randall’s music is its joyful tone. He believes humor and laughter are not distractions from faith, but reflections of it.

“I can’t even imagine full joy… that doesn’t include laughter.”

He connects this joy to childlike trust:

“They believe they’re safe… so they just trust.”

This sense of safety and humility, he explains, is central to both faith and worship.

Family Devotions: Joys, Challenges, and Grace

Despite creating resources used by families worldwide, Randall candidly shares that leading family devotions was not always easy in his own home.

“Let me be the voice for all those listeners… who have really struggled to have family worship time.”

He eventually released the pressure of perfection:

“I had to release the agenda… to the Lord.”

Instead, he focused on modeling faith:

“What my kids are going to learn from me is… what it looks like to trust Jesus in front of them.”

Simple and Sustainable Family Worship

Randall encourages families to keep things simple and manageable.

“Let’s see if we can get in and out of this in about seven minutes.”

Consistency matters more than intensity. Small, faithful steps over time can have lasting impact.

Turning Around a Hard Homeschool Day

When a day goes off the rails, Randall suggests a mix of humility, creativity, and grace.

“I would acknowledge… this has been a crummy day. I’m partly to blame.”

Then, shift the atmosphere:

“Find something that I usually say no to. And go do that.”

And finally, return to gratitude:

“Let’s just… go around the table and say something you’re grateful for.”

Key Takeaways:

• Music is a powerful tool for Scripture memory
• Children remember what they sing repeatedly
• Beauty and truth matter deeply in children’s music
• Scripture songwriting often begins with personal study
• Matching musical tone to Scripture meaning is essential
• Difficult passages can produce the richest insights
• Joy and humor reflect deep spiritual truths
• Family devotions don’t need to be perfect to be meaningful
• Modeling faith matters more than forcing structure
• Gratitude and flexibility can reset a hard day

You may also enjoy:

• 3 Easy Tips for Teaching Bible Memory Verses to Kids
• Ultimate Guide: What Every Child Should Know About the Bible (+ Free Printables)
• Getting Started with Family Worship (an interview with my husband, John Sloan)

Find Randall Goodgame online:

Randall Goodgame is a singer, songwriter, and the creator of Slugs and Bugs and the Scripture Hymnal.

• Sing the Bible Devotional
• Scripture Hymnal

Check out all the other interviews in my Homeschool Conversations series!

[00:00:00] Amy Sloan: Hello friends, today I am delighted to be joined by Randall Goodgame. He is a singer, songwriter, and the creator of Slugs and Bugs and the Scripture Hymnal. His music has in so many ways really been the soundtrack to my motherhood. My children have so much of God’s Word hidden in their heart just from years of listening to his Sing the Bible albums. And my adult and teen kids in particular were very excited that I get to chat with you and they wanted to make sure that I told you thank you on their behalf. They just have a lot of gratitude for your work and the impact that it’s had in their life. So I’m just really excited to get to talk to you. I always enjoy chatting with awesome people on my podcast, but some guests I get a little bit more excited about than others. I’ll just tell you now, you make that cut.

[00:00:50] Randall Goodgame: Amy, thank you so much. That’s like the greatest introduction ever.

[00:00:55] Amy Sloan: Well, here at the beginning, can you just tell us a little bit about yourself and your family?

[00:00:59] Randall Goodgame: Sure, sure. Well, before I do, make sure you tell your kids, thanks so much. I appreciate their shout out and for them listening all these years, gosh. And yes, I am here in Nashville, Tennessee, married. My wife and I have three kids, although they’re big now. Couple of them are out of the house. Our last one is a senior in high school, probably about to leave soon. And yeah, I’ve been here in Nashville since 96. So a long time. And during that time, my hair has gone gray. And yeah, you mentioned it. For the last few decades, I’ve done Scripture Hymnal and, well, no, Slugs and Bugs, singer-songwriter here in Nashville, and Scripture Hymnal for the last few years.

[00:01:48] Amy Sloan: Yeah. Well, has music always been a part of your life, even before you were in Nashville, even as a child? And did you have any early musical influences?

[00:01:58] Randall Goodgame: So yeah, it’s funny. I did grow up playing the piano, piano lessons. My parents like to say they gave all three of the kids piano lessons, but I was the only one that ever wanted to play. So I kept kind of going back to the piano, even though I wouldn’t necessarily play what my lesson was asking me to. So I would learn, you know, Billy Joel songs, or had this Michael W. Smith book. And learned to play the guitar about 15. And I always loved telling this musical influence, because it’s probably such a surprise to anybody that didn’t grow up in Florida in the 80s. But probably my biggest songwriter musical influence from an early age was Jimmy Buffett.

[00:02:46] Amy Sloan: Nice.

[00:02:48] Randall Goodgame: I just soaked up so much of that stuff being a beach kid. And I hear it, you know, in my songwriting all the time. But I really grew up on all those kind of 70s, 80s singer songwriters like James Taylor, and Paul Simon, and Billy Joel, and 80s, 90s, like Bruce Hornsby. And then kind of got into Stevie Wonder and Bob Dylan in like high school and college. So lots of different influences. And of course, I was always growing up in the church. So a huge part of my song thinking is, I’m sure, rooted in hymnody.

[00:03:30] Amy Sloan: Yeah. Well, and I can hear, you know, as someone who listens to your music, there’s such range. And I can hear, oh, I can see you had influences from all these different styles and musicians. And now it’s kind of coming out in your own work. But it’s really funny because I have, so I have five children. They all have to play the piano. Our rule is, you know, you don’t, nobody has to be Mozart, but you have to at least be able to play a hymn out of the hymnal. Just that’s a good life skill, right? For your family.

[00:04:00] Randall Goodgame: Yeah, that’s a great, well done.

[00:04:03] Amy Sloan: So my middle daughter, she’s probably, she stopped taking lessons, but she probably practices and plays the piano more now that she’s not in lessons, both from the hymnal and from other things. And she’s recently taken up guitar as well. So I’ll tell her she’s in good company with you.

[00:04:20] Randall Goodgame: Wow. Yes. And how old is she? She is 15. Oh my goodness. That’s right. That’s perfect age.

[00:04:27] Amy Sloan: I really enjoy it. That’s one of my delights as a parent, is to listen to my kids playing their instruments, especially when they’re just doing it because they want to, right? Not because they’re being told to practice.

[00:04:39] Randall Goodgame: Right. It’s such a joy. My daughter plays fiddle and my youngest played the piano for a long time. He eventually, we allowed him to give it up because he wasn’t practicing. And my middle guy played trombone there for a while, but there was a moment where his school was like, you can either be in chess club or play in the band. And he just begged me, all his friends were in chess club. And so that was kind of the beginning of the end for music for Jonah. But you know, you look back and you go, nothing was wasted. The Lord used all of it.

[00:05:19] Amy Sloan: That’s right. Well, your journey into scripture singing in particular, I was doing some research on your website and it sounded like it started a lot in the context of homeschooling your children and family worship as a parent. I’m curious how that has influenced the way you then think about your songwriting and what are some of the lessons you’ve learned about discipleship as you’ve applied these things with your own children?

[00:05:49] Randall Goodgame: Wow. Okay, so yes, there’s a lot that just lightbulbed into my mind. I’ll start with, yes, I started writing scripture songs for my kids. So when they were little, the two oldest ones, when they were maybe four and six or five and seven, something like that, we were homeschooling them and I was in charge of piano and Bible, music and Bible. They were having trouble memorizing their scripture passages and so it just seemed like a natural thing to do one day to try to make a melody to help them memorize. And Amy, I’ll never tire of telling the story, it was like magic watching them remember it because it was to a melody. It was Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, was the first one they ever memorized. And so that was how it started with serving my kids. And I was already doing Slugs and Bugs songs, Slugs and Bugs records, so it was just a natural inspiration to feel like, wow, these songs are really serving my kids, I should maybe record them for these people that are kind of growing into the Slugs and Bugs community. And then there was something else that you mentioned about songwriting and I’ll say it struck me early on that, and this all kind of works with scripture memory too, the things that you sing, you remember. So even as a songwriter, long before I started writing, even before I started writing songs about Jesus, I just always felt like it was really important to be so careful about every word that you’re writing that someone else is going to sing because they’re going to remember it. And you just want it to be beautiful and you want it to be true and worth repeated experiences. So that’s kind of followed me through everything I’ve done and proved to be a really important part of scripture songwriting because—well, so before scripture songwriting, when I was writing songs just for kids and families, it was really important to make sure that they were really beautiful and true and singable, worth repeated listenings because kids just want to hear stuff over and over again. If they like it, they just want it again and again and again. So parents, like as a parent, I was exposed to some not great music over and over and over again, which you get resentful pretty quickly.

[00:08:30] Amy Sloan: Yes, it’s kind of like those terrible picture books that your kid gets at the library and you’re like, no, I don’t want to read that one over and over again, but I’ll read Blueberries for Sal as many times as you want, right?

[00:08:41] Randall Goodgame: Yes, we read Blueberries for Sal, oh my goodness. But yeah, so with scripture songs, there’s something so special about music and the way that it works with the brain that it’s just always been important for me to try to make it as beautiful and singable and memorable as possible.

[00:09:01] Amy Sloan: There is something really unique about the way music sinks into our hearts and our memories, I think. And I know that, so I don’t know if you ever listened to GT and the Halo Express when you were a kid, but I grew up on those cassettes. And so much of the scripture that I have memorized still now that I don’t even have to think about comes from the songs, from those cassettes, scripture songs. Now have I memorized passages of scripture since then? Yes. And there are ones, I can kind of sort of remember them, but the ones that I don’t even have to think about are the ones that were set to music. And again, I see that with my own children, with the Sing the Bible albums as well. These are the things that when we’re in a hard situation or we’re happy or we’re just cleaning the kitchen, those are the words that come out without even having to go back and be like, okay, now I need to think of a scripture verse, that that song sings into our heart. And of course that makes sense. You know, God knows this about us, which is why He gave us the Psalter, but yeah.

[00:10:05] Randall Goodgame: Yeah. It just, it makes me endlessly grateful. Just another reason to be grateful for the goodness of God and His creation and how He made us and that music even exists is this incredible gift and that we get to harness it for His glory and our good through His word. It’s just, for me, endlessly inspiring. I mean, I plan on doing it for as long as my brain keeps working.

[00:10:35] Amy Sloan: And then to think like God Himself, He rejoices over us with singing, right? So He’s singing over us.

[00:10:42] Randall Goodgame: Music. Yeah. Yeah. One of my, in my research with doing, writing songs for Scripture Hymnal, I came across a passage in Job where it talks about the stars singing at the birth of creation. And with that, that passage, it sort of kind of gives you this sense that singing music has existed since before there was time. If the stars started singing, they couldn’t have been the first. So yeah, it’s, you know, we’re just, we’re just in a long line of saints that have been able to enjoy life and God’s word and, you know, worship and all the ways that music interacts with our brains and our minds and our lives. I mean, I’m sure you’ve seen those YouTube videos of people that have, kind of can’t remember anything else about their life, sitting in a hospital somewhere where they play music and they, you know, stand up and start singing. So yeah, it’s incredible to get to, you know, play in that world.

[00:11:58] Amy Sloan: Yeah. Well, one of the things I love about your Scripture songs is they’re not just songs about the Bible, but they’re actually word for word Scripture. And I also appreciate that you often will include the references. So I was curious, how do you choose which verses you’re going to set to music? And then how do you choose the musical style or tone that’s going to fit that particular Scripture? Because one of my pet peeves is sometimes if you’ll have like a hymn or a psalm that’s been set to the wrong music and you’re like, why are we singing this peppy song about a lament? You know, but your music connects with the words. So how do you kind of go about that process?

[00:12:38] Randall Goodgame: Wow. Well, first of all, I usually am picking from the songs, from the passages that I have been studying. So first and foremost, I have passages that I want to remember. So they’re in my journal, and then I just kind of have them circled, and then when I’m ready to go write, I’ll go back to my journal and find the ones that I have wanted to remember. And then other songs are, sometimes they’re emailed to me, passages that are emailed to me saying, hey, my family would love this passage. And inevitably, it’s one that I think, oh, wow, you know, yeah, that’d be a great one to remember. So it comes from other people too. And then, as far as matching it to the music, I’m, you know, humbly just, I’m just trying to approach it with the, match the tone that it’s doing with me, and I don’t expect that it always matches everybody else. I am looking for music that specifically captures what I’m feeling when I’m reading this passage, whether it’s urgency or meditation or encouragement. The one that’s coming to my mind right now is the song from Isaiah 40, Do You Not Know, Have You Not Heard, The Lord is the Everlasting God. And it’s got this, I sort of, I really wanted it to have this sense of almost like a town crier, like someone that’s speaking out to people. And so the ascending melody, do you not know, have you not heard, that seemed appropriate. So that’s, yeah, that’s what I’m doing, and, you know, I don’t know if it’s right or not, but all the artists can do is go with the compass the Lord’s given us, you know.

[00:14:41] Amy Sloan: One of my favorites is When the Fullness of Time Had Come, God Sent Forth His Son Born of Woman. That version that you did on the Christmas album is one of my personal favorites. Actually that whole album is one of my favorites, but.

[00:14:56] Randall Goodgame: Thank you. Yes. And I’ll just tell you, Amy, I love singing that chorus. It’s such a celebration. Yes.

[00:15:02] Amy Sloan: Yes. Indeed.

[00:15:04] Randall Goodgame: God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts crying out, oh my goodness, I just love singing it.

[00:15:09] Amy Sloan: Oh, it’s glorious.

[00:15:10] Randall Goodgame: It’s a good, it’s also a good litmus test for me when I’m working on a song is if it’s moving me, then I just keep it.

[00:15:18] Amy Sloan: Yeah. Well, has there ever been a passage that you either started working on or someone suggested it and you were like, I don’t know, this seems like I’m not sure I can come up with a song, but maybe it ended up being meaningful to you.

[00:15:33] Randall Goodgame: You know, ironically, the one that comes to mind is the passage about psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. It’s with the writing of the scripture hymnal, which for your listeners, if they don’t know, it’s a hymn book of songs that are all word for word scripture, but built for congregational singing. And of course, that was one of those passages that felt like it needed to, it belonged in the hymnal. And but then when I sat down to work on it, it was such a challenge. Nothing about the rhythm of the words and the syllables, nothing about it lined up. It’s just the most prosiest prose that I encountered or among the most prosiest. And yes, I was an English major. But yeah, I just kept working on it and it probably took a year till I really felt good about it. And now that we’re sitting here together, I can’t remember. Oh, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember. I was really hoping to make a chorus out of the psalms and hymns and spiritual songs part of it. But what ended up happening was the song kind of teaches you as you go where what’s best. And we ended up repeating the with thankfulness in our hearts to God as kind of the repeated chorus ish motif. So yeah, that comes to mind as an ironic example of one. And there are there are passages that I still haven’t cracked, I mean, or I haven’t felt great about. Psalm 23 is one that is just notoriously hard, and I still don’t have a song for it.

[00:17:27] Amy Sloan: It’s interesting because it’s like you were you were meditating on that passage for that whole year. And as you were pondering it and thinking and studying it yourself, it gave you insight into maybe a part of the actual important part right there, that thankfulness with thankfulness in our hearts to God. And so I love hearing how your own study and meditating on God’s word then gave you an insight that played out into the music and then came out there as well.

[00:17:55] Randall Goodgame: Yes, Amy, it’s so it’s just an incredible gift to have my assignment be go be in the Bible all the time.

[00:18:04] Amy Sloan: I mean, it’s a pretty good job if you can get it.

[00:18:07] Randall Goodgame: It’s I mean, when I was working on the Scripture Hymnal, we were going through a really difficult time in our family, just really, really hard season. And I was stuck in the Bible every day. And it was just, you know, often through tears, I was writing these songs about, you know, clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, patience, bear with each other and forgive one another. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. I mean, just the scriptures are just obviously living. And they continue to they continue to feed me. And it’s, you know, a gift to get to release the songs out into the world, hoping that they feed others. Because we know that the Lord’s, you know, his word doesn’t return void.

[00:18:59] Amy Sloan: And as parents, we actually don’t have as much control as we think we do over our children’s hearts.

[00:19:07] Randall Goodgame: Right.

[00:19:08] Amy Sloan: But one thing we can do is we can fill their minds and their hearts with the truth and then trust the Spirit to do the work through those living words that are His.

[00:19:17] Randall Goodgame: Right.

[00:19:18] Amy Sloan: And we don’t know when those words might come back to their mind now or in the future. But that’s also something I think about that’s really beautiful, like going back to our previous conversation with the music, just sort of really settling these words into your soul. That’s what I do. I’m like planting these seeds, filling their hearts with all of the scripture that will not leave by God’s grace.

[00:19:42] Randall Goodgame: Mm hmm. Amy, it’s just yes, answer to so many prayers to know that’s what y’all are doing, because that’s with whether it’s been shy for all those years producing or Kyle and I in this last record, but we would write down people’s names for each song, like who we were thinking about when we were working on it. And and, you know, ever since, just with the release of every record, when I think when I go to do shows, I’m always just praying that the Lord brings to these to the people that are there, whoever’s listening, what they need through his word, because only he knows. And you’re right. Part of my prayers is let these sink in so that when they need it, they’ll the words will come to mind. And I know they come to mind for me. You know, usually when I’m out weeding in the garden, irritated about something, the Lord will bring up to my mind, you know, a passage about patience or something that speaks right to the heart of whatever I’m going through, do everything without grumbling

[00:20:50] Amy Sloan: and complaining.

[00:20:51] Randall Goodgame: Yes. Isn’t that right? So we can shine like stars.

[00:20:56] Amy Sloan: Well, one of the things we really love about your music is definitely as you can. I’m sure anyone who’s listening can hear you take God’s word very seriously. And I appreciate that the scripture is is weighty and it matters, but your music also doesn’t take itself too seriously, which I also love. And there is humor and joy that comes out in your music. And so why do you think humor and joy are an important part of the Christian life in general, your music kind of personally, because someone might be like, oh, but we have to be serious about these things.

[00:21:31] Randall Goodgame: Wow. Amy, that’s a good question. You know, my wife, Amy, my wife is also Amy. She and I were talking about that this morning before she went to work because she’s the funniest person I know. And I was just kind of encouraging her about she’s such a good, she’s kind of manages a staff at the Christian Museum, Christian Music Museum, downtown Nashville. And part of I know what they love about working with her is that she’s always making them laugh. And we were talking about, she had read some scripture this morning, we’re talking about the wedding feast, you know, what’s heaven going to be like? And she said, I hope there’s laughter. And it made me think about, you know, C.S. Lewis talks about how we know that there’s something more to life than what we can see because we ache for it so bad. So that ache is the clue. And almost like the photo negative of that is laughter is so wonderful and so joyful and just the best thing about that. It’s got to be in heaven. How could it not be? Right. But I was thinking about when Jesus is talking to his disciples in John 15, he says, he’s gone through all this stuff where he’s like, abide in me and I in you, and like, given all this stuff about bearing fruit and without me, none of this is going to be possible. And then he tells me, he says, but I’m telling you all this stuff so that your joy may be full. So like, I can’t even imagine full joy, a picture of that that doesn’t include laughter. Like that, like a kid, a belly laughing kid is like the most pure piece, like picture of pure joy I can imagine. And I think the reason that children sometimes, they represent that for us or for me at least, is because they haven’t been hurt yet. You know, they’ve got so much, they’re just kind of naive in the best way. They’re just ready to cackle. And that childlikeness is what is waiting for us in heaven as we are freed from all the kind of shackles and all but love. We’re freed from everything but love when we get to heaven. And so, gosh, this is a long answer.

[00:24:17] Amy Sloan: No, I love it.

[00:24:20] Randall Goodgame: I think that part of loving God and loving his word is like, you automatically are humbled. Your humility is built into it, right? And so, if you’re humbled, then you’re kind of like a child. And sorry, this is a crazy tangent, but it’s making me think of the reason children, another reason why they are, they laugh so easy is because they believe they’re safe. You know, kids, they’re not jaded. They think at least a healthy kid in a healthy environment, they think they’re safe. So they’re, they just trust. And that picture of childlikeness is, I think, what Jesus is talking about in Luke 18, 16, 17, where he’s like, unless you come like this, you can’t come into the kingdom. And so, this answer has been so long-winded and circuitous. I am so sorry.

[00:25:30] Amy Sloan: No, I love it. Rabbit trails are the point. Yeah, it’s that childlike faith, that humility. I’m glad you brought up that word, too. And actually, this is reminding me of one of my favorite Chesterton quotes, right? It’s a longer passage. The whole thing is worth reading. But he says, angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. And he’s contrasting it with this sort of weightiness and pride and this false seriousness that promotes itself as being wise when really it’s foolish because it’s so self-centered. And so, the joy and, you know, thinking about a little baby, a little toddler who’s just giggling. And, you know, the parents love like squeezing that little belly and all the cackles. It’s because that child, like you were saying, they know that they are loved, they’re safe, they trust their parent, and they have no self-weightedness, right? They’re not focused on themselves. And so, as we can focus on the Lord and the safety we have in Him, like, why wouldn’t that bring? The joy of the Lord is our strength, right? Like, why wouldn’t that bring joy and laughter to our hearts?

[00:26:41] Randall Goodgame: Yeah. Oh, such a good point, Amy. Yeah, they feel safe. They’re not weighted down by self-centeredness. It makes me think of our pastor this past—maybe, you know, two Sundays ago—was preaching on 1 Corinthians, the passage where Paul is talking about, I decided when I came among you to know Christ and Him crucified, and only that. And like, when our eyes and our minds are on that, then there’s nothing left of us to take seriously. It’s just Jesus. And so, in the light of His love for us, we are set free. And so, freedom—expressing freedom is wonderful and joyful. And so, it doesn’t surprise me that laughter and humor is built in. Yeah.

[00:27:37] Amy Sloan: Well, what are some of the joys and challenges you have experienced as a dad in family worship, creating devotions as a family? And someone who’s listening, and maybe they’re wanting to pursue, start a tradition of family devotions in their home, what would be some words of advice or encouragement you would give them?

[00:27:59] Randall Goodgame: Wow. Well, I’ve got a buddy, John Mark McGaha, who—he’s a worship leader here in Nashville. He’s got five kids, and they sing songs together every night. It’s just—it blows my mind. And the reason I bring it up is because somehow, like, his kids are—the oldest, I think, is 14 now. But I bring that up to say, that was not my family. Amy, let me be the voice for all those listeners out there who have really struggled to have family worship time. Because I think, for me, I really wrestled with the Lord, because here I am making all this stuff, and all these other families are using it. But my kids, once they passed 10 or 11, we’re like, yeah, no, we’re not interested in that. I’m not interested in forcing anybody to praise God. That’s just heretical. But what I ended up having to reconcile with was what my kids are going to learn from me is going to be what it looks like to trust Jesus in front of them. So if I’m practicing trusting Him in front of them, then that’s going to be how the gospel is relayed to them outside of—you know, we go to church on Sundays. But I had to release the agenda of having to have a family worship time to the Lord, because it was just too painful. I will say that we recently, earlier this year, released a Sing the Bible family devotional for families with 52 weeks of devotions and activities and prayers. Each song has one scripture that they listen to and sing along with for the week, so that by the end of the year, the family has a whole catalog of scriptures that they’ve learned. And so I hope that that book helps families that are looking for a way to do it, but I also feel good about helping families not feel guilty that Mr. Randall had a really hard time with it too.

[00:30:33] Amy Sloan: And sometimes I think we can put this expectation on ourselves like, okay, while it’s going to be this incredible, profound time, it will take an hour and we will have deep, meaningful conversations and then it doesn’t look like that, and you think, well, I guess we’re a failure and we just won’t do anything. One of the things I liked as I have begun looking through that new devotional is it’s so manageable. I can imagine a family with little toddlers, kids getting ready to go out to baseball, sitting at the table together, and easily being able to incorporate it into a busy life. So it’s not one more thing that’s going to take an hour, but it’s something that you can do. And it’s something that if a family is feeling maybe worried or I don’t know what to say, or I don’t know what to do, it could be a helpful tool for them.

[00:31:22] Randall Goodgame: Amy, thank you so much for saying that. That’s exactly what I was hoping. I mean, I will say in those years where we were doing it sporadically, I also had to come to terms with, I got to release to the Lord my expectation for whatever this is going to look like, and just know that I’m being obedient to the call that I’m being given today to just spend some amount of time with my kids and trust the result to Him. But part of my struggle with it as a family helped shape that book because, yeah, let’s make sure, let’s see if we can get in and out of this in about seven minutes. That’s about all that my family’s going to be able to handle. So I’d love hearing you say that.

[00:32:10] Amy Sloan: Thank you. Yeah. I just want to say congratulations to anyone who’s listening or watching. I will put in the show notes a conversation I actually had with my husband, John, several seasons ago all about family devotions. John, one of the things I love about him is even from literally from our wedding night, we began having family devotions together. And it’s very simple. We pray. We read the next chapter of the Bible. We just start at Genesis, get to Revelation, and there’s a joke in our family, you know, we read the last chapter of Revelation. John’s like, hey, kids, guess what we’re going to read tomorrow. And we just start back at the beginning and we sing a song. Sometimes it’s a psalm. Sometimes it’s a hymn. Sometimes it’s a Bible song and we just bring out one of our memorized sing the Bible songs or whatever, depending on the night. But I appreciate it because it’s something that we keep simple, but we keep as a priority in our family. And I really encourage anyone to listen to that chat with John. I know I’m biased because, you know, he’s great and I love him and everything, but it really was a good conversation.

[00:33:10] Randall Goodgame: Oh, yeah. I can’t wait to listen to it. Yeah. And that’s a great note, Amy. I think, you know, keeping it simple and manageable is so, so key. Not having a great expectation for what it’s going to be like or what or how our kids are going to pay attention. I remember one of the keys to me saying, all right, I need to give this, give this back to the Lord was I kept getting irritated at my kids for not wanting to be there, not wanting to participate. And I thought, well, if this if this is causing more trouble, then I need to find a different way to expect them to get the gospel. But but yeah, simple and just being attentive to the leading of the spirit and all of it is where it’s at.

[00:34:06] Amy Sloan: Well, this has been absolutely delightful. I’ve really been excited to be able to chat with you and I appreciate you taking the time. But here at the end, I want to ask you the questions that I ask all my guests. And so the first is just what are you personally reading lately?

[00:34:21] Randall Goodgame: Oh, great question. I’m usually reading a bunch of stuff. I just finished this really fascinating, fun little book called Leveret. Do you know what a Leveret is?

[00:34:34] Amy Sloan: No.

[00:34:35] Randall Goodgame: This will be a really fun. I didn’t either. It’s been really fun to get all your podcast listeners, except for the ones that live way out in the country, to learn a new word because a Leveret is a baby hare, like a like a bunny, but not a bunny. So a hare and a rabbit are actually totally different species. And a baby hare is called a Leveret. And this book was about this woman who accidentally made a home for this baby hare in her in her home during COVID and because hares are notoriously wild, like they are not tameable. So that was really fun. But and I am reading again, I think I probably read it 15 to 20 times now. But I’m back in the Lord of the Rings. I’m usually reading it if I fall asleep. Last night, we had just entered the mines of Moria.

[00:35:43] Amy Sloan: That’s when you should just always have on constant repeat, you know, like the Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings. I mean, you should just always be reading it.

[00:35:51] Randall Goodgame: It really is. Yeah. Some of my favorite quotes in all of literature are in Lord of the Rings. I’ll tell you, my my very favorite is when Faramir says to Frodo, he’s talking about well, I’m not going to tell you what he’s talking about because that would give it away. But he says, I do not love the right sword for its sharpness or the arrow for its swiftness or the warrior for his glory. I only love that which they defend.

[00:36:32] Amy Sloan: Oh, I love it.

[00:36:34] Randall Goodgame: I love it so much. There’s so much going on there. But there you go. That’s what I’ve been reading lately.

[00:36:40] Amy Sloan: Oh, that also brings up if anyone has only seen the movies, this is why you have to read the books. So our family, we are always like justice for Faramir because he’s maligned in the films and he’s the greatest in the books.

[00:36:54] Randall Goodgame: Yeah.

[00:36:55] Amy Sloan: All right. So final question is, what would be your best tip for turning around a family day that seems to be going all wrong?

[00:37:04] Randall Goodgame: Oh, my goodness, Amy, can I have a minute and you can maybe edit out all this, all the silence? Oh, sure. When a day seems to be going all wrong. Well, I would pray. And ask the Lord what to do first. And when I think back. To things. That I’ve done and that have shaken up the family in good ways before, it’s find something that I usually say no to. And go do that. Like, you know, go find something that go get ice cream for dinner first. And then get whatever they want. Or. If they’re. Yeah, find a way to say yes to something surprising. My wife would have something really funny to do. She’d probably like, go what, start quoting, you know what, another thing that occurs to me that we did for a while as a family, now that everybody’s gone, but like the whole gratitude question, everybody, let’s just kind of go around the table and say something you’re grateful for. I would acknowledge, like, this has been a crummy day. I’m partly to blame. I’m partly to blame. You know, I don’t know how to handle crummy days. I would just embrace, as the parents, I would embrace your weakness and just go like, you know, I, I’m figuring out, figuring all this out on my own. I mean, I’m figuring all of this out as we go and I’m going to get it wrong all the time. But one thing that helps me is to try to remember some things to be grateful for. So let’s just all, I’ll start, let’s go and let’s go around the table, say something we’re grateful for. That could help.

[00:39:12] Amy Sloan: Yeah, definitely. Yeah, definitely. We also found that especially helpful when all of the kids were picking at each other and just fighting with each other. We would stop and have them, like, say things they were thankful for about each other. I remember doing that when they were really little too. Okay, because it’s hard to be mad at somebody when you have to come up with something you’re thankful for about them.

[00:39:32] Randall Goodgame: Yeah, it’s so funny how just remembering is just like the biggest deal. It’s, that’s the whole thing about the gospel. We just have to remember. If I could remember what I am thinking of in the morning when I meet with Jesus and reading the passages and I’m praying and what I’m feeling and thinking, if I could just remember that 10 minutes from that moment and then 10 minutes from that moment and then keep remembering that every 10 minutes, I’d be golden.

[00:40:02] Amy Sloan: If only, I mean, it’s a simple, really.

[00:40:05] Randall Goodgame: I know. But yeah, anything that can help us remember being grateful, that’s a great word.

[00:40:10] Amy Sloan: Yeah. Well, Randall, where can people find you, your music, your Bible, new Bible study, all the things all around the Internet?

[00:40:18] Randall Goodgame: Okay, slugsandbugs.com, first of all. And then the scripture, scripturehymnal.com, those two are the two places for sure. And then our YouTube page has a ton of stuff. The Slugs and Bugs Show is up on YouTube. All of our, so many of our videos are up there. And then, of course, there’s Facebook and Instagram. Where we’re posting things. I don’t have those things on my phone anymore, but we still post stuff. People can find out when we’re doing shows. And if anyone wants to do a Slugs and Bugs Show, they can always kind of reach out to us through our website. Yeah, how’s that?

[00:40:58] Amy Sloan: That is great. And I will include all those links and the show notes for this episode over at humilityanddoxology.com. Thank you to everyone who has listened or watched. Please take a minute and share this episode with a friend. Maybe a friend who already loves the Slugs and Bugs music. Or maybe someone who really needs to know about these wonderful resources. And until next time, happy homeschooling.