Provident

For what does it profit a teen if he gains a summer job selling Bibles but loses patience with the faithful?

One spring semester in high school, I stopped by Barnes and Noble to pick up a job application for summer. When I sat down at the kitchen table to fill it out, my mother took a look and gave it the expression she reserved for news stories about child abduction.

“I don’t think you should apply there,” she said. “You don’t know who you might end up working with.”