Kristi Watts Talks True Happiness

FATHER TO THE FATHERLESS
In 1997, Kristi met Tracy and were married. Two years later, she started working at CBN as a producer for The 700 Club, and by 2000, she moved into the role of co-host along with Pat Robertson and Terry Meeuwsen.  In 2005, three days after her son, Chase, was born, Tracy left.  Kristi was devastated and faced raising her son as a single mom. Once when Kristi was holding baby Chase, she began to panic about how she would raise a son alone.  God spoke to her heart and promised her as in Psalm 68:5, I am a father to the fatherless and a protector to the widow.    “It was the breakdown of my marriage that catapulted me into a deep relationship with Christ,” says Kristi, who was raised in a Christian home and gave her life to the Lord at the age of five.  “When my husband first left us, I found myself reliving hellish moments in our marriage over and over,” says Kristi.  “The only way I could get the thoughts to stop badgering me was by speaking the Word of God out loud.”  Over time, Kristi forgave Tracy and even flew to his home just to tell him she had forgiven him and to ask his forgiveness in return.  

In 2015, Tracy called Kristi to tell her he had stage four esophagus cancer.  Doctors only gave him a few months to live.  Initially, Kristi didn’t believe him.  “He had lied to me for so many years that I instinctively assumed he was lying about this, too,” she says.  Tracy asked if he could see Chase and her.  This would be the first time he had seen Chase since he was a baby.  During his visit, Kristi was overwhelmed with compassion for the man who broke her heart and walked out on their marriage.  He lost so much weight and was bald from the chemotherapy.  Kristi comforted him when he started to feel ill.  “All I saw was a man suffering and my heart longed to help him,” she says.  As she massaged his hands and arms, Kristi couldn’t help but think of the man she had married, before the alcohol and fights.  “We laughed and cried, but most importantly, we forgave.”  At one point, Tracy asked Kristi to pray for him.  By the end of the visit, he was happy and so was Kristi.  Six months later, he died.  “God used Tracy’s death to reveal to me that within my heart was anger toward my husband, pride as a Christian and self-centeredness in my situation,” says Kristi.  That was why she was so unhappy! “When my words were rooted in the lies of my fickle emotions, they produced a heart of discouragement and disappointment.  So God spoke compassion into my life in response to my prayers to help in the transformation of my heart,” says Kristi.  She reminds us when our hearts and our words line up with those of God, change spills over into our lives.  

PURPOSE IN THE PROMISE
In 2013, Kristi became restless in her job as a cohost.  “After 14 years, I knew it was time to go,” she says.  A couple months before she left CBN, the Lord called Kristi to a 40-day fast during which He spoke to her heart.  “I am removing you from this ministry,” He said.  She was thankful for the hope of working somewhere new.  After 2 years, Kristi was unable to find a job.  “I didn’t get it,” she says.  “I tried to live a holy life, righteous life and I was doing right before the Lord.  My life should have been easier.  I was baffled,” she says.  All of her friends were gone; she was 100% by herself.  She was quickly becoming heartsick.  “My life needed to change and I longed to be happy,” Kristi says.  On New Year’s Day 2015, Kristi’s mom called her and the conversation turned to a struggle Kristi’s sister was going through.  Kristi wasn’t in the mood to talk because the worries of her own life were taking their toll.  As she listened to her mom, Kristi says she began to remember her similar struggles and how God healed her broken heart.  Suddenly, Kristi became fully engaged in the conversation.  She told her mom, “If God did it for me, He can do it for her!  They both began talking about their personal experiences with the Lord.  “Our words were like lighbulbs illuminating the handprint of God within our lives,” says Kristi.  She told her mom, “I just talked myself happy!”  Her mom said, “Girl, I just talked myself happy, too.”  She reminds us to transform our hearts by getting to know the heart of God.  “When circumstances and people fail us, in His presence, there is fullness of joy,” says Kristi.

Kristi launched her ministry in 2015 and provides Bible study tools and video blogs to encourage believers in their relationship with God.