A Good Word Wednesday
Current Substack Newsletter updated each Wednesday
A Good Word Wednesday
#143 SAFE
May 14, 2025
A little bit of goodness, encouragement and hope in your mailbox today.
When do you feel safest? How do you help others feel safe? SAFE. It’s Your Good Word for Your Wednesday.
“Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.” Proverbs 12:25
On a boat…. In Indonesia
(NOTE: Today’s Good Word first appeared on May 17, 2023. Today, as I was thinking about graduates, and young couples getting married, and mission trip team members preparing for summer trips, I was inspired to share this Good Word today. It’s one of my favorites.)
This isn’t where I feel safe — on a small boat on a big, open sea. The ironic thing about this situation is that I had just begun to work for an organization called She Is Safe. I knew I was safe… ultimately. I knew God held me safe in His strong arms. Trying to convince myself of this truth while in the middle of the Indian Ocean was challenging. In the photo above, I was traveling with our She Is Safe team to visit women on a remote Indonesian island who truly weren’t safe from many things — from their families, their environment, and sometimes from themselves. We were bringing them messages of hope, of ways to help themselves thrive and of ways to be safe in the storms life brings.
People often asked me during those years, “Were you ever in danger? Weren’t you scared?” Yes and yes. But God supplied much peace in stormy situations. God doesn’t always ask us to stay in our safe, warm, cozy homes. Sometimes, He asks us to go to unsafe places to share light and life with those who need it. Sometimes we go on an airplane, or in a boat or walk to the house across the street. And always, He is there.
When I think of safety, I immediately think of the image of God as a mother bird tenderly protecting her chicks.
“How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” Matthew 23:37
Doesn’t that scripture make you feel safe, nurtured and loved? It doesn’t mean that hard times and tests won’t come, but it does mean that He is there with us in the trials, holding us close— just like a momma bird caring for her babies.
We’ve just celebrated Mother’s Day. Many of our memories include us feeling safe and snug in our mother’s laps, holding her hand, eating her food and sharing our hearts with her. Safe.
Let me know where or how you feel most treasured, seen and loved.
Wednesday in the Word
Wednesday in the Word
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Psalm 91:1-2
“The name of the LORD is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” Proverbs 18:10
“In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety.” Psalm 4:8
Share Your Good Word
Good Questions
GOOD Question(s) of the Week: Where do you feel the most safe? How do you help others feel safe?
Photo credit: She Is Safe
Good Words from Unseen People
From Unseen People: Sharing Light and Life with Your Neighbors and the Nations, On a Boat, in the Dark, in Indonesia, pp. 124-125.
Was this really happening? I was facing a surreal, suspenseful sensory overload. I sat in the front of the motorboat, speeding across the Indian Ocean in the waters surrounding Sumatra, the sea-salted wind streaming through my hair. Was it real? Was I half a world away in a small boat with eight other people headed for the shores of the big Indonesian island?
It was so hard to process the reality and believe we were there. When a brilliant rainbow formed in front of us, God seemed to proclaim, “This place that I’ve created is truly a treasure, full of people who need to know Me.” However, the mystical beauty soon faded as the sun set and we found ourselves on the sea in the dark, with only a small flashlight the boat captain used to scan the dangers directly in front of us.
Have you read Unseen People?
AND — Unseen People is Now available in Kindle, Paperback, Hardback, and Audio Versions.
Good Words I Recommend
A Good Non-Profit: She Is Safe. If you want to help bring new life to women and girls most in need, check out this organization. I worked with She Is Safe for almost 10 years and I can tell you story after story of how they are helping to free and equip women and girls, trapped in sexual slavery and abuse, to become who God created them to be.
A Good Song: Safe by Alisa Turner “Safe. You Hold Me Safe…. Love that sings my name…”
Another Good Song: He Will Hold Me Fast “… for my Savior loves me so, He will hold me fast.”
A Good Book: Safe All Along: Trading Our Fears and Anxieties for God's Unshakable Peace by Katie Davis Majors
Another Good Book: Forgotten Girls: Stories of Hope and Courage, Strom and Rickett
A Final Good Word
I didn’t include the following scripture in the section above because I wanted this to be the final good word today:
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. Psalm 139:7-12
Light in the darkness. Reminds me of nightlights in a frightened child’s bedroom. Safety in the shadows. My prayer for all of us this week is that we know the Father’s love, safety and hope.
Have a good week. See you next Wednesday.
DeAnna’s email: deannalynnsanders@gmail.com
Gratefully yours,
DeAnna
A Good Word Wednesday is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
