 He said that he was grateful for the ways he learned to trust God more deeply when his father died at the age of 55. But he wished he lived many more years. The great grief of his life is that his father never met his sons. And he says the purpose is not to commend gratitude as it is in itself. Rather, the principal reason for encouraging gratitude to God in the midst of adversity is that it can turn adversity into greater reliance on him.