From Rags to Riches-Part 2
Dear Champions,
The short excerpt is by Reach Boivin and is more on Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner. The Scripture is 1 Corinthians 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
During his final season at the University of Northern Iowa in 1993, Kurt Warner went to a country-music dance bar called Wild E. Coyotes. He spotted Brenda Carney Meoni and asked her to dance. Her immediate reaction? Get away. Get away, she thought. Here is this cute guy in a bar with an entourage of females, and I am the last person that makes sense for him to go to, Brenda said. I am a divorced woman with two kids, one with special needs. And Kurt is 21. They danced, and the next day, Warner was knocking on her door with a rose.
Again, I am screaming in my head, Go away, but I opened the door and said, Come on in, she said. My 2 and a half year old grabs him by the hand and shows him every radio we own. He fell in love with my kids before he fell in love with me. When we would have a fight and were going to break up, he would say, Well I get the kids. I am like, but they are my kids!
They stuck together, even when it appeared football was not in the future. He signed with the Green Bay Packers as a free agent in 1994 but was cut before the season began. He returned to UNI to work as a graduate assistant football coach and spent nights stocking shelves at the local Hy-Vee grocery store. He moved in with Brenda, who was struggling financially and turned to food stamps for a while. They drove a car that died every time it turned left.
Around this time, Warner began challenging Brenda about her faith. He questioned her, suggesting she was picking and choosing her beliefs from the Bible at her convenience. During this exploration, he closely studied the Bible. When I did, it was obvious what the truth was, Warner said.
Before they married, he told Brenda they should follow the Bible faithfully, which meant, among other things, no premarital sex. They married in 1997, and what followed was two Super Bowls and two MVP titles. During a visit to The Oprah Winfrey Show, Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner basically had three sentences to say, so, in the middle one, I made sure I mentioned my faith, because how could they cut it out? I went to watch the show on replay . . . and they cut it out!
Warner says, If you ever really want to do a story about who I am, God has got to be at the center of it. Every time I hear a piece or read a story that does not have that, they are missing the whole lesson of who I am.
Champions, have a great week!-David Vining
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