Reflections: As unto the Lord

GUEST POST BY JOHN R. HARRIS  

My cousin, Benny R. Harris, exemplified hard work to achieve the American dream. As a poor rural Arkansas boy of 16, he arrived at Arkansas Tech University ready to wash dishes or scrub floors to pay for a business degree, and then he applied that work ethic to a banking career in several Ozarks locations. Before his passing in 2025, he had been honored as a fixture of the Russellville, Arkansas, business community and the Tech alumni community. Enjoy these thoughts from his youngest son, John. 

 –Cynthia Thomas 

For the past two evenings, I’ve been polishing work boots. I can’t talk my wife into doing it, LOL, but honestly, I don’t think I would let her, even if she agreed. Here’s why.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my dad here lately. Things he would say, things he would do, his routines. And I find myself embodying some of those same routines.

When I was a little boy, every Sunday evening after supper, Dad would sit in his recliner, turn on 60 Minutes, open a tin of Kiwi shoe polish, and shine his work shoes for the coming week. As a kid, I never understood it. I remember thinking, “I’ll never have a job where I have to shine my shoes.”

Funny how life works.

For over two decades in law enforcement, shining boots has become part of my own routine. But somewhere along the way, I realized Dad wasn’t polishing shoes because someone demanded it. He was preparing.

He was taking pride in the work God had entrusted to him before the workday ever arrived. He understood that how you prepare in private, often determines how you perform in public.

Shined shoes never made anyone a better person; and it still doesn’t. But discipline does. Attention to detail does. Respect for your profession does, and honoring the opportunity to provide for your family certainly does.

Today, every time I shine a pair of boots, I think about that little boy watching his dad on Sunday nights. What I once thought was just cleaning shoes was actually a lesson in character. Sometimes the greatest lessons our parents teach us aren’t spoken. They’re lived.

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men” (Colossians 3:23). 

John Harris is a 24-year law enforcement officer currently serving the city of Russellville, Arkansas. Along with police work, John serves as the Men’s Ministry director at Pottsville First Baptist Church and as the safety director for area churches through the River Valley Baptist Association.