Love is not expressed not so much by the words we use, but by our actions.

I heard the story about a man who had gotten up early on Saturday, as he always did, and headed to his ham radio setup.

He heard a voice on the radio which caught his attention, and he stopped to listen to what he had to say. He was talking about a thousand marbles and how they helped him keep a good perspective on his priorities. He said he sat down one day and figured that the average person lives about 75 years - some less and some more. He multiplied 75 times 52 and came up with the number 3,900 - the number of Saturdays the average person has in their lifetime. When he got to be 55 years old, he realized he had lived through 2,800 Saturdays, and if he lived to the age of 75, he only had about a thousand left to enjoy.

He went out and bought a thousand marbles and placed them in a sack. Every Saturday he would take out one of the marbles and throw it away, and by watching the bag of marbles become smaller, he found himself focusing on the most important things in his life.

The speaker said that morning he had taken the last marble out of the bag, that he was going to take his wife out to breakfast, and realized that each Saturday would be a special gift.

As I was summarizing this story, I realized it sounded somewhat morbid, but for this 75-year-old man, it had been a way to help him realize the value of life, to remind himself of what is really important, and that each day holds great possibilities.

We all have our own special ways to remind ourselves of what is really important.

In a positive way, I think I would add a marble to a container every Saturday and watch the number grow and be thankful for each one I've had, knowing that each contained a special story.

More than that, I think I would toss an extra marble in for all the special days, i.e., Valentine's Day, to name just one. If we're married, or have a significant other in our life, we may express our love through flowers, candy, diamonds, a card, or some other gift, but the most significant gift doesn't cost anything and consists of those three little words, "I love you."

May all our Valentine's Days be meaningful and loving and filled with those words, "I love you!"