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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 and BrendaKURT 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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