By Daisy Rodriguez, student news writer, Office of University Communications
CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. – The Rev. David Cozart, director of the Fatherhood Initiative at the Lexington Leadership Foundation, president of Commonwealth Center for Fathers and Families and member of the Campbellsville University Board of Trustees, spoke about his father dropping him off at Campbellsville College for the first time at a recent chapel.
Cozart’s father dropped him off at college in an old truck. The engine was smoking, the tires were marred and Cozart could even see the road through a hole in the floor.
“I didn’t trust the truck,” Cozart said. “My dad didn’t trust the truck either, but we trusted the Lord. And now that’s what I knew my father trusted in, when he was bringing his son to Campbellsville College to change the trajectory.
“He was trusting the Lord that day when he was dropping me off.”
His father knew the truck had issues and he had work that night as well, but regardless of everything going on, he dropped him off at school. When his father dropped him off, Cozart said his father told him, “Keep your head on straight.”
When we have goals and destinations, we often get off the path and lose our direction because we didn’t keep our head straight. When we want to get to our destination, we get distracted with things that happen on the side.
“Distractions can be lethal, fatal and terminal in your life if you don’t do what my daddy said: ‘Keep your head on straight,’” Cozart said.
Cozart said it’s also cognitive and behavioral about keeping your head on straight, not being distracted and not having things in your mind, body and soul that would distract you from thinking and behaving rightly. Cozart said he didn’t know that’s what his father meant.
If your mind is foggy due to substances, circumstances or actions, it affects your thinking. It affects your cognitive behavioral functioning.
“If you don’t think right, you won’t act right,” Cozart said. “Keep your head on straight.”
The world is full of distractions. When his father said those words to him, he was speaking to his son prophetically. We wonder why we haven’t reached our destination, but we don’t realize that our destinations have led us off the road, Cozart said.
“Do your best and keep your head on straight,” Cozart said.
Cozart is an associate minister at First Baptist Church Bracktown in Lexington, is a 1989 graduate of Crittenden County High School and 1993 graduate of Campbellsville College where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology with a Sociology minor. He earned his Master’s degree in Theology in 2013 from Campbellsville University.
He is married to Nekesha Cozart. He is the father of three children: Zachary, Destiny and Dalen Cozart. He is the son of the late Charles and Eva Hill.
Campbellsville University is a widely acclaimed Kentucky-based Christian university that has enrolled up to 12,000 students yearly. The university offers over 100 programs of study including doctoral, masters, bachelors, associate and certification programs. The website for complete information is www.campbellsville.edu.