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Aging Well & Growing in Maturity
October 9, 2025 · 58 min
The world tells us to fight aging, hide it, or fear it … but God’s Word offers a better way. In this episode, Haley and Dustin talk about aging well: what the Bible says about growing older,
Series Hope Talks Podcast Videos October 9, 2025 · 58 min · Hope Talks Podcast Videos
The world tells us to fight aging, hide it, or fear it … but God’s Word offers a better way. In this episode, Haley and Dustin talk about aging well: what the Bible says about growing older, ...more Show the full description Show less The world tells us to fight aging, hide it, or fear it … but God’s Word offers a better way. In this episode, Haley and Dustin talk about aging well: what the Bible says about growing older,
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Hope for the Heart is a worldwide biblical counseling, coaching, and caregiving ministry founded by June Hunt in 1986. We’re passionate about helping people
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In this video 0:00 Aging Well: God's Perspective on Time and Life
Aging Well: God's Perspective on Time and Life 0:00 In scripture, aging is is so honored, you know, the family honors, and it's so respected, and yet we're so afraid of it. Why don't we see it as an opportunity?0:12 And I think it's just because a lot of times we're taking our eyes off of what God says about it. Welcome to Hope Talks. We're your hosts. I'm Haley Scully along with Dustin Anderson, and we0:24 wanna give you every reason for hope for every challenge in life because hope means everything.0:36 Haley, we are talking about aging well today.0:39 I am looking forward to learning a lot today.0:44 So I wanted to I wanted to start with, 2 scriptures Okay. That, might kinda frame the conversation a little bit. So Isaiah, 46 4 says, I will be0:56 your God throughout your lifetime until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you. And then Psalm1:08 39 4 and 5 says, Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered, how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My1:19 entire lifetime is just a moment to you. At best, each of us is but a breath. Oh. Right? Yeah. And so I like those 2 kind of together because the1:31 Isaiah verse talks about I'm I'm God throughout your entire life.1:35 Yeah. I like that.
1:36 When you're old, when you're aging, I'm always with you. I'm always carrying you along. Mhmm. And then on the other hand, there's this sense of time and aging where we recognize how fleeting it is, how quick it
1:48 is. When we decided to do this a week or 2 ago, ever since then, I feel like every interaction I've had, like, this just keeps coming up. So I was watching my youngest daughter, Abby, she's 6 years
2:00 old, play in the backyard. Mhmm. Last night, it's finally cool enough to play
2:04 outside, and I love it. Praise the lord.
2:06 And she was just running around doing gymnastics stuff, and I was just watching her and thinking about my older kids used to do the same types of activities Mhmm. What felt like
2:18 yesterday, but they were 6 years old 6, 7 years ago. Yeah. And it was just like, I've had so many moments like that where I'm just like, where did the time go?
2:30 Like, I celebrated being here at Hope for the Heart, for 10 years this past summer. High 5. And so much life has happened since then. I've had, had my, second
2:42 daughter, when I first got the job and my third daughter. And 10 years, like, just felt like it went by in an instant.
2:50 Me to sing time keeps on slipping slipping slipping?
2:55 And then, 1 other funny thing, my wife and I celebrated our 16, years of marriage this past summer as well. And Kristen kinda joked, like, if our marriage was a
3:07 person, like, they'd be driving a car right now, like, at 16. Like and it just feels like our wedding was a couple weeks ago or something like that. Like, there's a sense of time that just
3:18 goes by so quick.
3:19 Why do you think that is?
3:21 I don't know. I've been thinking about that because it's like, in some sense, aging, it it happens every day. We get older every day. It's like, I
3:33 wanna say it's, like, pervasive, but that's not the right not quite the right word. It's so normal Yeah. Part of our lives, but it's also so strange in some sense that we kinda we have these moments where
3:45 we wake up 1 day and go, what what happened? We're in all the time going. We're and we're and we're older now. And Yeah. Yeah. And it's hard to make sense of it
3:56 sometimes, but I think, scripture, points us in a lot of, good and more kind of positive directions than I think kinda what we can kind of what
4:08 we hear in the culture a lot. And so I'm looking forward to diving into this and talking through not just the fleetiness of time and aging and things like that, but also that that hope of that first that in
4:20 any stage of life, god is your god throughout your lifetime.
4:24 I love that. I love that. That was Isaiah Isaiah 46 4, what you said?
4:30 46 4. Isaiah 46 4.
4:32 That was really good.
4:33 To hold on to.
4:34 Yeah. I do think, like, aging well can be or just aging can be really tender for some people. You know? And I think a lot of times, our comfort level with aging
4:46 can very much depend on our circumstances. It very much can depend on our expectations. I was thinking, like, when we're little kids, we're looking ahead. We wanna be 16 and drive the car. When we're teens, we're
4:58 looking ahead to college, you know, and then there's some point where we're trying to just look at the moment, you know.
5:05 Trying to slow down.
5:06 Trying to slow down, and then we get to a stage where we're looking behind us, you know, a lot of times, and also looking ahead because it can be tender based on those expectations.
5:18 Am I where I wanna be? Am I who I wanna be with? Am I who I want to be? Just period. As a person, you know, those things can either make aging more difficult,
5:31 or we can kind of lean into it and go with the flow a bit. I think that's what's so neat about scripture. When we talk about scripture being alive and active and
5:43 being something that is there to guide us, this isn't just a history book, this isn't just all of these things happen. When we talk about leaning into it and it guiding us, those scriptures are such a perfect example.
5:55 He is speaking to every situation in our lives, every time frame. Like, what hope is there in aging? Because so many times that can have different connotations,
6:08 you know. Mhmm. So I think having a conversation, thinking about what god's word does say Yeah. Because I don't know if I've mentioned this. I'll be turning 50 soon.
6:21 And 50 seems super grown up to me. Like, me Like an official adult. Like, who is more grown up than a 50 year old? You know? I I think when I was
6:33 younger, looking ahead at 50, man, I just couldn't even believe it. I you know? Like, it's just hard to fathom, like, when you're 16 and you're thinking about being 40. I mean, it's just it's so weird how
6:44 we always have kind of this filtered view Yeah. Of what the future will look like or what it will be. But But I think that's where we when we bring in God's word about what he says about time, about who we are, and about
6:56 stages and about aging, it can really help us have a healthy perspective. So I don't really know what my expectation really was about being 50
7:08 years old. Like, I don't know what it was, but I do have what I would think is my number 1 aging well tip. I wanna give anybody list You lose a tip. Yeah. My aging
7:20 tip. Maybe get a pen, maybe fall over if you need to. And now this is this probably I'm sure no but here's the deal. Yeah. The readers are assigned to the room,
7:32 not not your they're the readers stay in the room. So I have a pair of readers, like, where my quiet time is, in the kitchen, in my bath, in the bedroom.
7:44 Pairs. Yeah. The readers are assigned to the room. They don't stay on my head. If I leave that room, the reader stays there. That's the only way I have learned to not spend half of
7:55 my life now looking for glasses. I never knew how much time and effort that was gonna take. And I don't have, like I don't wear glasses on a normal basis. It's just if it's too close. Yeah. You know?
8:07 And, like, Bible print is small. So, anyways, the readers stay in the room. You buy the reader to match the room. We don't carry it around with you. I think that so far is my number 1
8:19 aging well tip. Yeah. And more to come throughout the episode. I'm sure it's gonna be things better.
8:25 I love that because in our, we have a keys for living book on this topic, and throughout it, we put it together. June had asked, I think it was her uncle Ray.
8:34 Mhmm.
8:35 He calls him ray she calls him rays of sunshine. And so throughout the book, there's kind of these little tips on aging well. And some of them are like these kind of funny practical things like that, but
8:47 then some of them are, you know, things about stopping to enjoy things, remembering the small moments in life. Yeah. Cultivating gratitude, I think, is a huge theme, that kinda comes out
8:59 in this conversation. Yeah. But 1 of the things that was kind of throughout the book and when we think about aging well, it it to me, it kinda it was a big conversation
9:11 about maturity.
9:12 Mhmm.
9:12 And so when we
9:13 Well, I'm ready to speak to maturity. Talking to the most person
9:17 in the room. And so the way and even the way we defined it in the keys for living book was just aging as a process of growing physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually toward maturity.
9:29 Yeah. And so there's a lot of scriptures around that theme of especially in Colossians 1, and Paul talks about, you know, we preach Christ in order to present everyone fully mature. Yeah. And there's a
9:41 handful of other scriptures on I mean, the whole Bible is about growing and into more Right. And more like Christ. And so in some sense, while there are unique kind of characteristics
9:53 of getting older and aging Mhmm. In some sense, there's there's a truth of, like, we should always be kind of working towards maturity
10:02 Mhmm.
10:03 That god's purpose for us in some sense, in every stage of life is kinda the same, you know, to to know him, to make him known, to keep growing. It just might look different in different
10:15 stages of life. Right.
10:16 That's, I think, what the power of looking at what God's word says about it. When we are measuring ourselves based on our expectations
10:29 of beauty or of, you know, what aging well means, I mean, what is our what's our North Star on that? What is our, you know, foundation of that? And I think whatever stage it
10:41 is, like you said, it's kind of being who did God create us to be. It always I mean, if every conversation doesn't come back to identity in Christ, I don't know what is I
10:53 mean, it when we know who we are and we can lean into what his word says, then getting to 50 is not nearly as scary as it was when I was 30. Yeah. You
11:05 know, we the part of that maturity, like I said, I'll be able to speak a lot on maturity throughout this podcast. But part of maturing is knowing
11:17 more and more what God's word says about us so that it doesn't spiral us out when a next phase of life comes to us. Because we're not identifying
11:28 or defining those stages by our expectations or our circumstances. We're defining our peace or our contentment in those stages with who God is and who
11:40 he says we are. I mean, that's really especially when our lives, as we're going along, don't quite look like we expected or Yeah. We don't you know,
11:52 all my 50 year old girls, like, we're talking a lot about our hair falling out. We are talking a lot about, you know, the hormones changing Yeah. And all sorts of
12:04 things. And like like I said, I used to think that would be terrible. It's not for it's not so bad. Like, I think by the time you get to a stage that you're maybe are even afraid of Yeah.
12:16 You know a lot more. We know a lot more than we did when we were worried about it 20 years ago or 10 years ago. Like, you get there and you're like, okay. I actually kind of like this. Yeah. You know, I think
12:28 it's a it's an emotional well-being Mhmm. Starts to to grow and build when we're depending on God to define us even when sometimes physical well-being is
12:40 adjusting a bit, if that makes sense. Yeah. Okay.
12:44 You mentioned, you said the word scary there
12:47 Mhmm.
12:47 And, afraid in there.
12:49 Well, you know.
12:50 And so I wanted to add, like, why do you think there's such a a a fear around, aging? Because 1 of the things that came through when I was preparing this was
13:02 just it really became clear to me how much the world views aging versus how scripture talks about it.
13:09 Mhmm.
13:10 And I think the way a lot of the conversations go in, like, the world or the culture, like, there's a sense in which we hide it. We don't wanna talk about aging. Right. We don't wanna think about
13:21 Don't say your age.
13:22 Yeah. You never say your age. I love it. It's just, like, expected. Mhmm. And it's so interesting because there's, like, there's so many topics in our library that, like, are hard to talk about and people don't wanna
13:33 talk about, like, abuse or addiction and things like that. But then there was something about aging that just felt like that almost might be up there with 1 of the most, like, avoided
13:45 topics because it was just there's like a there's some level of understanding of just, like, we don't talk about our age. We don't wanna think about what comes with aging, the effects of aging,
13:57 and, you know, the different changes and limitations that can come with that. Mhmm. And so I just felt like, why is that? Is there, like, a fear about it or a scariness Mhmm. To it?
14:09 But then also, when I kinda dove into scripture, it it was just like a completely different. It was like night and day. Like, we're in whereas, in the
14:21 world, it would mainly be like, we don't talk about it. We hide it. We don't wanna think about that. It was more like your elders are talked about as something to be Revered. Revered, dignified. There's literally verses
14:31 on, like, I wanted to read 1 or 2. K. Proverbs 16 31. Gray hair is a crown of splendor. It is attained in the way of righteousness. Proverbs 20 29. The glory of the young is their
14:43 strength. The gray hair of experience is the splendor of the old. Those are kinda, like, funny, and there's, like, a good observation to be made there. But literally, like, talking about gray hair as, like, an
14:54 indicator of, like, you know, maturity and its splendor and all of that. And so but then there's just so many other ways that scripture talks about aging as
15:06 something that it's purposeful. It's it's something dignified. Mhmm. It's something that hopefully is something that's a marker of maturity and wisdom. And it there there was just not this sense of, like,
15:18 I need to hide my age or be afraid of it. I need to be afraid of growing older. Like, there was a hopefulness Mhmm. Of, like, I'm going to be with
15:30 Christ and, you know, all these different things. And so, I don't know, even the way we talk about it normally versus how scripture talks about it really stood out to me. Yeah. And so why do you think why do you think
15:42 that is? And, again, why do you think there's a fear around aging?
15:47 I think just we see evidence or we see situations of maybe elderly people struggling or having difficult times, and we kind of we leap
15:59 there. You know? Like I shared before, kind of that concept of not calculating our futures without the presence of God there. You know, an elderly person that is struggling or having a hard
16:11 time, like, they have matured and had experiences and loves and losses and wins and successes, and they have a whole life story that that kind of gets them to that moment.
16:22 And I think we tend to sometimes consider worst case scenarios. We borrow trouble from tomorrow.
16:30 Mhmm.
16:30 And I think that that worries us because we kind of jump from where we are right now to where we are there, and it's like, I don't want any of that. But thinking about how God has been our provider in each stage of our
16:41 life, in each phase of our life, and really, I don't know, you know, all the hope that we talk about is hope centered on having a relationship with Christ. It's not like you're in the Jesus club, you're out of
16:53 the Jesus club, so you don't get, you know, to rely on him, but I don't know how you have hope beyond an understanding of the reality of who God is and the reality of who Jesus is.
17:05 Like that, when we say our hope is there, then as we get older or our memories change or, you know, like you said, I think that's such a good point in in scripture.
17:17 Older age, aging is is so honored. You know? The family honors, and it's so respected, respected, and yet we're so afraid of it. Why don't we see it as an
17:29 opportunity? And I think it's just because a lot of times we're taking our eyes off of what God says about it, or we don't know what God says about it. And the unknown
17:41 is scary a lot of times. You know, we start to diagnose and plan and think, oh my gosh, it's gonna be terrible. And there are a lot of hard things. My parents will say, like, aging is not for the
17:53 faint of heart. You know? Like, they will at their age, a lot of people at doctor's appointments, there's things you gotta start, you know, taking care of and doing, and it's just considering change
18:05 and Yeah. Maybe not being as in control or thinking that we're not as in control as we were at different stages of our life when our strength was maybe more there.
18:16 Yeah. To me, 1 of the hopes, in this conversation of, you know, the hope in aging. 1 of the things that stood out to me was that sense of purpose and identity doesn't change. I
18:28 think when you're younger and growing up, there's a sense of, like, I can find my purpose in in marriage and family and my job and all this stuff. Mhmm.
18:39 And, ultimately, we should be finding our purpose. I say should be. Our our purpose should be rooted in god's will for us in in Christ and having our identity and worth
18:51 in that relationship. But I think of, like when I think of aging well and, like, especially, like, post retirement years
18:58 Mhmm.
18:59 I can understand that there's definitely just a loss of purpose. Mhmm. And what am I here for and what should I be doing. But when I think about the purpose that god gives us in knowing him
19:11 and and serving others, like, that continues on even after retirement. So I think there's a lot of truth in scripture around, like,
19:23 you still have purpose. You still have worth. You still have significance and identity even as these losses occur Mhmm. With aging. Yeah. And to me, I don't know,
19:35 that kinda gives me hope that as I think about myself, you know, in the decades to come Mhmm. Like, those things are gonna continue on, you know, as my
19:47 kids go out of the house and Yeah. You know, different changes occur. Like, I don't know. I just the fact that God's word gives us that sense of purpose and identity.
19:58 Yeah. I think that to aging or considering where we are and what how we're defining that at any stage, you know, whether it's kind of middle
20:10 life or young or old, it is the opportunity to pull into God's word and be encouraged by it. We're just, we're not on our own in it. And I think a lot of times, we try to figure out how to
20:22 respond to it, and I think I love, I know that I love. That's part of the practicality of these types of resources. What does god's word say? You know, I've shared before, like, my parents that started the
20:34 Sunday school class for senior adults. And, you know, my mom has just pitched it if, you know, you still love to learn. And Yeah. There's people in their seventies and even eighties in
20:45 their class that they just still love to learn. So Yeah. Our preconceived notions of what aging in different stages of life, like, a lot of that is just like everything else.
20:57 Let's do a little gut check. Like, where are we? What is our expectation of this? If our expectation is still that as long as the Lord gives me breath, there are things to do, people to love, prayers to
21:09 pray. Yeah. You know, things to celebrate, things also to grieve and mourn, but it's not just always looking back and think that was life or those were the days, but Yeah.
21:21 Today is the day and, you know, having hope and joy where we are. So I I love some of the what was in the keys about the world's view and perceptions
21:33 of aging versus what God's word says about aging. Is that where you were going next? Because I love that.
21:39 Yeah. I mentioned a little bit of it, but, yeah, I'd like to do a little more. The world talks about it in terms of, like, decline, weakness, kind of, like, focusing on the losses you'll experience and even, like, to use
21:49 a word, like, irrelevance.
21:51 Mhmm. Mhmm.
21:52 Like, you're you're just kind of you're no longer needed. Yeah. And to put it kind of bluntly, like and but, again, the way scripture talk about it talks about it is it's
22:04 a it's a time of, like, maturity, wisdom, honor, purpose. Mhmm. Dignity is a big 1 that kinda stuck out to me. Again, like we mentioned, age is usually something you fight or hide. That would
22:16 be the kind of the the world view of it.
22:19 Mhmm. Unless you, like, almost wear a T shirt that says, I'm fixing to turn 50 all the time. I don't know why I don't hide it. Like, I think that I think because at different stages of my life, I wasn't
22:31 necessarily in the places or the situations that I expected, and so people have. Not that I've always looked younger, because I certainly haven't. Like, when I turned 16, they didn't even put under 21 on my driver's
22:42 license because the people at the license office didn't think I was under 16. Anyways but the fact that I hadn't hit certain life stages in particular, people have tended to
22:54 think that I was younger than I am. Okay. And so I think sometimes the awkwardness of that, I've just led with, you know, Hailey Scully, 49 years old. I just like to go ahead and get it said, and it just removes some
23:06 of the weirdness of it, you know, some of the concern of it. So I think, yeah, like, kind of fighting aging, trying to be young. I wanna be every day that I have earned and
23:18 done. You know? Like, I want to be this age, and I want I'm I probably, honestly, am more excited about this age than
23:28 Yeah. What do you like about this age? Because I did wanna get into, like, some of the both the challenges and the benefits of aging, but especially the benefits. Because, yeah, like, there obviously are a lot of
23:40 challenges that we're all
23:41 Breeders. Every day. Breeders.
23:43 Yeah. There's a lot of challenges that come with aging and, like so a lot of the key talks through, like kinda breaks down, like, the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual Mhmm. Stages and challenges.
23:55 And so, yeah, there's illness, declining health. Mhmm. To me, 1 that I kinda added and wrote down was just recovery time is a lot longer. Like, when I do,
24:07 like, a rigorous workout, like, I'm out. Yeah. I'm out for a couple days.
24:13 Me too. Me too. But then,
24:17 yeah, the the mental side of things, like, the the memory lapses Mhmm. Just to be honest, we've had a few recording them.
24:24 I
24:24 know. Just on this episode.
24:25 As demonstrated by for us today.
24:28 Thank you for the power of editing and
24:30 Yeah.
24:30 Meeting team. But but then also this the social aspect of you lose loved ones. Mhmm. That sense of isolation as well, when your mom was on, talked about that and then just the importance of keeping
24:42 up with relationships and being in community. But then there's the emotional aspect of things, like the the grief that comes with all of the losses and the sense of regret if you feel like you haven't,
24:54 you know, you're not where you wanted to be. But then also, like, the spiritual side of things of, like, I mentioned before of, you know, who am I now after retirement and things like that. Mhmm. So that I
25:06 think the challenges are very real, but then also the benefits. Like, the positive There's bennies. There's bennies. There's bennies. Positive side of things. And so I wanted to ask you about that because to me, like,
25:18 there is wisdom and there's this perspective on things. Yeah. And to me, 1 that stood out was just clarity, especially since having kids. I just have this sense of,
25:30 like, that's what's important. Mhmm. And it kinda makes all the other things, like, other people's approval and things less important. Mhmm. And that's still
25:42 a bit of an issue for me. Like, I still like getting approval. Like, I'm still a bit of a people pleaser. But it it just seems like in in issues like that, like, as you as
25:54 you age and mature, like, those types of things, they don't matter anymore. Mhmm. Like, you kinda have clarity on, you know, who you are, what's important, what really matters in life. Yeah. And so what would you
26:06 say are some more benefits, the positive sides of aging?
26:11 I think that, you know, the longer you live, the more life you've had.
26:17 Yeah.
26:17 Which is profound. We maybe could just pray and close right there.
26:21 The longer you live.
26:22 The longer you live, the more life you've had.
26:24 Experience.
26:25 Yeah. We we have opportunity to to go through things and have trials and be comforted. And, you know, kind of like you said, we've
26:37 just, we've learned lessons. And so it's not that other people hurting us or speaking bad about us, or it's not that it's not that it, it never, it
26:49 doesn't hurt anymore. It's just after we go through those things with the Lord and and we really get past some of them and get through them. You know, the waters rose and I didn't drown.
27:01 You know, the Yeah. The flames came up and I wasn't burned, you know? And so I think there's a little bit of a peace in those things that God has been who he said he
27:13 was throughout Yeah. Those stages. And there were times, you know, like I've shared before, it's not that I was always walking with the Lord at different stages. So I also, as we get older, we know what it feels
27:25 like to lean into God, and we know what it feels like to lean away from Him. At least I do. Yeah. I know what it feels like to lean away and be discouraged or be disappointed or be
27:36 mad. And I know what it feels like to lean into him when I'm hurting. And so wisdom says, when we go through those experiences, what was the better way?
27:48 You know? What what did I learn from that? And so I think we as we get older, you can get older and never mature.
27:58 Yeah.
27:59 And those that's certainly the case for some, you know, and I think that that is because in hitting those lessons, there there wasn't wisdom
28:10 gained. You know? Wisdom isn't gained. And I think that's something that we if we stop for a minute and consider what does aging well look like, what does God's word say about it? If people that are
28:22 listening think, okay. You know, I'm 32. I'm 47. I'm 59. I'm 68. Whatever age you are, thinking God is with
28:34 you right now.
28:35 Yeah.
28:35 You're the the grandest purpose of your life is not behind you because the grandest purpose of your life is to be conformed to the image of Christ. The grandest purpose of your life is to be redeemed to your Creator.
28:47 So it doesn't matter how old you are or what happened yesterday, today, or tomorrow, there is, there's a mission. You know, we are on we're on mission. 1 thing that
28:59 significantly changed my view at 1 point in life is when I was doing b BSF in Tulsa years and years ago. But I had never really thought of I mean, I knew about, like, going to heaven when I
29:11 died and
29:11 Yeah.
29:12 Jesus and and those types of things, but I had never taken the moment to consider that I really do not end on my last day on Earth. Like, I believe that. I
29:23 believe we go on. And so the the the span of importance for me extended well beyond myShow more
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