As country music singer Granger Smith and his wife continue to heal after the drowning death of their 3-year-old son last month, she has written an emotional post about the good that can come from suffering.
Amber Smith, 37, posted a photo of herself with the couple's two other children on Instagram Monday. She captioned it with an excerpt from the book "Bronner" by Sherri Burgess about the death of Burgess' young son.
"'Suffering produces in us endurance and character and hope,''' she wrote. "'It steadies us in our faith and deepens its roots in order that we may be able to weather any storm. It makes us reach forward to greater things than we can see right now, but that we know for sure not only exist, but will be ours at the last.'
"Excerpt from the book Bronner by @momgirl777. This book is magic. After dinner drive and walk to the lake. The smiles on these faces are some of the brightest lights in the dark."
The couple's son, River, died in a drowning accident last month in the pool at their Texas home.
The heartbroken parents later opened up about the boy's death in an emotional video.
"He lived a good 1,000 days,'' Granger Smith, 39, said in the video. "That’s a huge example for me and how we’re going to look at every single day."
Amber Smith shared her anguish over River's loss in an Instagram post earlier this month.
"I am broken,'' she wrote. "My heart will never be the same. I will never be the same."
She also wrote about how the family mourned his absence during a trip to Chicago for Granger's first performance since their son's death.
The couple has taken some solace in the fact that their decision to donate their son's organs saved two other lives, which Amber wrote about on Instagram earlier this month.
"I’m so proud to be River’s mama and I’m so grateful to God that he gave him to us for those incredible 3 years,” Amber wrote. "I pray these 2 recipients live healthy, joy filled, full throttle lives just like Riv. It was one of the hardest, yet easiest, decisions we’ve ever made."