Adrian Peterson says he's made major changes to his life since the death of his young son last October.

He learned only two months earlier that he was the boy's father and had been planning to meet him before the boy died Oct. 11. Joseph Robert Patterson, who was dating the boy's mother at the time, was charged with murder and manslaughter after he allegedly assaulted the child.

"It's just made me stop taking things for granted," Peterson said in a recent one-on-one interview with ESPN.com. "Life is short. You never know. You just want to take advantage of the time you do have."

Peterson proposed to his longtime girlfriend on July 4 and they were married on July 19. The couple has one child together.

Peterson said he is more careful to cherish his time with the four children who don't live with him.

"It's time for you to really get your life in order," Peterson recalled telling himself. "When all that stuff came down, it's more like, 'Reality check, man.' It's time to start walking the way you know you need to instead of straddling the fence -- knowingly straddling the fence.

"First and foremost, [it was] getting in alignment what God wanted for me in my life and stop [being promiscuous]. I was pretty much doing what I wanted to do, and I could pretty much do that. [It was] just to get in alignment with God, having a wife and really creating that bond and that life. It was more fulfillment knowing the head man is proud and knowing I'm doing it the right way."