SUPER BOWL
Kurt Warner On Love, Life
and God
The 700 Club
CBN.com
- GORDON ROBERTSON (reporting): 'First things first.
I have to give praise and glory to my Lord and Savior up above. Thank
You, Jesus,' Kurt Warner told the public. With those words, quarterback
Kurt Warner, MVP of Super Bowl XXXIV, wrapped up an incredible season,
and once again, with his family watching from the stands, Kurt will be
part of Super Bowl history in New Orleans, facing the New England Patriots.
Brenda, the first time Kurt asked you out, you hit him between the eyeballs:
'I'm divorced. I'm a mother of two'. Yet still, he kept coming on.
BRENDA WARNER: The first night we met, after we danced that night,
I told him, 'I just want you to know I am a divorced mother of two, so if
I never hear from you again, I will understand.' That's the way it usually
worked. The next morning, he showed up with a rose and wanted to meet the
kids. He fell in love with the kids a lot sooner than he fell in love with
me. He looked at us as three blessings instead of just one. I just kept waiting
for the man that I deserved, and God blessed me with him.
GORDON ROBERTSON: Kurt, what was going through your mind? You are
in college and you meet this girl and she's a Marine corporal and you are
still interested in her. Can you tell me why?
 KURT
WARNER: I don't know. She just caught my eyes. There was something different
about her, something that stood out. She wasn't like all of the other women
in the bar and women that I had met. There was something that stood out. That
first night, we danced together and I really got to know her and found out
there was something different about her. So, when she told me she was divorced
and had two kids, that was not even part of the equation really. It wasn't
like, if that was in, I would have to run the other direction. There was something
about her that stood out to me and really attracted me, and I wanted to see
if this was whom the Lord wanted me to be with.
GORDON ROBERTSON: What happened when you met her children? One of
them, Zachary, is a special child. What happened then?
KURT WARNER: That was an awesome experience. Her daughter was only
nine months at the time, so there was not a lot of interaction there, but
with her son, we warmed up to each other quickly. He grabbed a hold of my
hand and he wanted to show me the radio and we started playing on the ground
and wrestling. I just fell in love with the kid, because he had a joy and
excitement, a love for life that was really second to none. I have really
come to enjoy that over the years each and every day, to see his joy. But
at the time, he was a great kid.
GORDON ROBERTSON (reporting): When Zachary was an infant, he was dropped
accidentally. He suffered blindness and permanent brain damage.
BRENDA WARNER: I remember sitting in the hospital room and doing everything
that I knew to do: I claimed verses, I prayed with all of my heart, I believed
for miracles. I did everything I knew to do and it was not happening. That
shook my world and made me think, OK, maybe I am not supposed to understand
everything, but I am supposed to have faith. I made the decision then that
God had a plan for Zachary's life, and I am still believing for healing, but
I can also see this plan developing and I am just thrilled to be a part of
it. It is not how I would have written it, but I am blessed to know that I
get to be a part of his life and to see what God's going to do with it.
GORDON ROBERTSON (reporting): Kurt, meanwhile, grew up with a Catholic
background. But faith in God was not something he took seriously.
KURT WARNER: It wasn't the reason I lived my life. He wasn't the focus
of everything I did. He was just kind of a part of it. I went to Mass and
felt like it was more of a thing I was supposed to do more than necessarily
wanting to do it or wanting to have that strong relationship. I felt that
with my upbringing, it was a thing I was supposed to do and God was supposed
to be a part of my life, but I really didn't know the extent that I needed
to give my life to Him like I do now.
GORDON ROBERTSON (reporting) April 14, 1996, a tornado touched down
in Arkansas and killed Brenda's parents. That tragic event forever changed
the way Kurt and Brenda looked at life.
KURT WARNER: That situation showed me that you don't know what is
going to happen tomorrow. You have to live life for today and for this moment.
It was at that point that I realized the Lord needed to be at the center of
my life. I couldn't wait until tomorrow or next year. It needed to be right
now.
BRENDA WARNER: When someone is dead, there is not a happy ending to
that, in a sense. That was hard, because this great God that I believed in,
I didn't understand why He wouldn't stop that tornado. Again, I don't have
the answers. It brought up a lot of questions. Kurt let me say some awful
things and did not preach back to me, and that helped a lot. There are still
some tough times. I don't understand it, but I know that the devil destroys
and God doesn't. God was there to pick them up and take them, and I hold on
to that.
GORDON ROBERTSON (reporting): About that time, Kurt's football career
in the arena league was showing promise. But a matter of convenience turned
into an issue of compromise.
You've admitted in your book that you guys lived together. What did you go
through in your own minds about that?
BRENDA WARNER: I remember after my parents were killed, Kurt said,
'Move down here.' I needed help with the kids. I was a single mom with two.
My parents were there to help me in a bind and suddenly they were gone. The
relationship Kurt had with my children, it worked well, because he was already
a father figure. When I moved in with him, it was more I needed that strength.
I was really having a hard time dealing with my parent's death, and so that's
how it started. Then it gets comfortable and it becomes, you know, why change
it? If it seems to be working, why change it?
We look at it now that we would definitely do it differently, but we learned
a lot through that and we try to take what we learn from it. We also didn't
take each other for granted after losing mom dad, and that caused us to want
to make our relationship stronger and get it going. We would change it. I
know that we would both admit that we would do it differently and that we
would love to give that gift to each other on the wedding night, but we made
our mistakes and God's grace covers it. That's what is so neat. Our story
shows that we are not perfect, but that we are sinners and have repented and
we want to move on to be better people for God.
GORDON ROBERTSON (reporting): You have heard it all before: athletes
who are quick to publicly thank God for victory or success. Kurt Warner does
it a lot, but what does it really mean?
KURT WARNER: When you stand up and say, 'Thank You, Jesus,' they think
you are saying, 'Thank You for being here. Thank You for moving my arm forward
and making the ball go into that guy's hands so that we could score a touchdown
and win the game.' But, in essence, it is a matter of thanking Him for the
opportunity, thanking Him for being there in my life, for being the stronghold,
for being the focus and the strength to accomplish all things, to accomplish
anything, and to be where I am at, to have gone through everything I have
gone through. It is a constant thing in my life. It is not just for something
specific He did on the football field to help us win; it is for everything
that He has done in my life up to that point and for everything He will continue
to do in my life from here until eternity.
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