I am past what is commonly called retirement age, and several years ago I noticed I was having mental conversations with myself that began something like this: “I wonder how much longer I will be able to hike these steep trails.” Or, “I hope I will be able to continue taking care of my yard.”

Christian Science teaches that we can challenge the limiting notion of an expected decline of strength and vigor. So I turned to the Bible and to the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, to gain some spiritual insights on this.

The Bible is full of examples of people overcoming limiting claims of age. Abraham and Sarah conceived and bore Isaac in very advanced years. Moses was eighty when he confronted Pharaoh in order to free the children of Israel. And the writer of Job encourages an expectancy of health, not decay: “Thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning” (11:17).