How well I remember The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. It captured many children's imagination, mine included. It pictured childhood as carefree with fun, worry-free, sun-filled days. Sadly, this is not the childhood most children experience today.

When I was a boy, in the 1950's, my days were filled with friends, bicycles, swimming, beachcombing, and climbing trees. There were no TV's, computers or videos, and no terrorism. Yet today, according to recent surveys, childhood is a worrisome time for most children. Will childhood ever return to the carefree days pictured in the fictional lives of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn?

Consider a shocking survey of approximately 1,000 young Australians between 10 and 17. Conducted by the Australian Childhood Foundation, it indicates that "one in four children believe the world will end in their lifetime." Also, 39% worry about having to face terrorism in the future. And 27% are concerned the world will end before they get old. Terrorism, cancer and crime are also major fears ("Kids Worry End Is Nigh," News Limited, news.com.au, August 6, 2006).

Three quarters of the youth surveyed agreed that children are growing up faster than they used to. This concern mirrors a recent UK study which found that 60% of children thought they "grew up too quickly." These findings also match an earlier 2005 Australian Childhood Foundation study that found that 85% of parents thought children are growing up too fast.

One of the study's authors, Dr. Joe Tucci (a social worker, psychologist and the Foundation's CEO) commented, "The picture of childhood in this study is concerning. The findings show children experience growing up too fast into an uncertain future that is a source of stress and worry." He also said, "The findings are challenging the traditional idea that childhood is a carefree time of life focused on having fun in the here and now. Results highlight significant numbers of children worry about what futures hold."

The study shows that childhood as experienced by youth today is very different from that of their parents. While many parents a generation ago had a carefree, happy childhood, their own children do not enjoy the same worry free experience. Dr. Tucci explained that children are probably pushed toward adulthood today by witnessing graphic displays of violence, such as crime, terrorism and war on television, the internet and in video games.

A powerful positive finding of the study was that 87% of the children surveyed thought that family was the most important thing. That is a good conclusion.

Yet a growing number of today's parents fail to teach their children the values essential for a worry-free life. A different study reveals that less than half of Australia's young people believe in a God, many believe there is little truth in religion (Generation Y Turning Away from Religion, Fairfax Newspapers, theage.com.au, August 6, 2006). This three-year national study of Monash University, the Australian Catholic University and the Christian Research Association, found that young people are increasingly following a secular path. The survey found that 20% of young people (born between 1976 and 1990) did not believe in God, while 32% were unsure.

Seventeen per cent have an eclectic, disjointed spirituality, believing in two or more "New Age", esoteric or eastern beliefs, including reincarnation, psychics and astrology. More than 30% of Generation Y are classified as "humanists," rejecting the idea of God, although some believed in a "Higher Being." Robert Forsyth, Anglican Bishop of South Sydney, said, "This is the first generation who probably know nothing about Christ, except those who go to Christian schools."

Edna St. Vincent Millay (an American poet, 1892-1950) penned the words, "Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies. Nobody that matters, that is." Her words are symbolic of how childhood should be—carefree, wonderful days without tragedies or worries.

Will such carefree childhood days ever happen again? Biblical prophecy shows they will, under the rule of Jesus Christ soon after His return. "This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with cane in hand because of his age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there'" (Zechariah 8:5, New International Version).

But even before Christ returns God promises that a work will be underway to "turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers"—to restore godly family relationships (Malachi 4:5-6).

Learn how you can apply those right principles to your family today. Just request or download your copy of our free booklet, Making Life Work.