My school played a game when I was little. Two bags were held in front of you – one was a crinkled brown lunch bag, and the other was a patterned bag covered in glitter and ribbon. They each had something inside of them, and the teacher would hold these two bags out and ask you which one you thought was the special one. Which one do you think has the big, special prize in it?

Looking at it from the perspective of an adult, it’s obvious how the story ends: the crinkled-up brown bag holds the $25 gift card, and the decorative bag holds a rotten egg, but our 7-year-old eyes tell us that the bag that’s beautiful on the outside is the one that’s special, the one that is the most important and the one that is most desirable. We laugh at the ignorance and innocence of it now, at the gleaming eyes staring at the pretty package that in actuality, beyond the decorations, hold nothing of real value at all.

We laugh because we think we know better, but every day we do the same thing.

We stand, hands outstretched in desire for and to be the pretty little package with the glitter and ribbon. We spend hours upon hours at the gym, curling hair and curling eyelashes, picking out the perfect outfit and then picking it out again because it wasn’t good enough the first time. We read magazines and blog posts: how to lose 10 pounds in 10 days. How to look five years younger and fit into jeans two sizes smaller. How to look like a 20-year-old as a 30-year-old, and how to find the perfect lipstick color for your skin. How to act better, think better,be better. We construct the perfect relationship, the perfect figure, the perfect life, just so people can look at us and think “Wow, they have it all together. I want to be just like them.”

Because if we were a pretty little package, people would pick us. Like us. Love us. He would love you. They would love you. You would love you. And so we lose 10 pounds in 10 days, spending incredible amounts of money just to cover the lines, to cover the imperfections, to cover ourselves.

But what about the prize?

We reach to be the pretty package, but once we get it, we find ourselves rotten on the inside. We sacrifice our inner beauty, our integrity, our strength and our kindness for a size four, for a second glance down the street or for someone to tell us about how perfect our life seems. But the glory of the size four will soon fade away as a size two replaces it. The glance from the stranger down a street will mean less and less and eventually, so will the apparent perfection of our lives. Skin-deep beauty will leave, and nothing will be left except what is on the inside.

A gym membership won’t make him love you. $60 foundation won’t make them love you. A new wardrobe won’t make her love you. Constantly wrecking what is already worth more than gold on the inside for what is so fleeting on the outside will never make you love you. Deep calls out only to deep, and if our eyes never stray from what is only on the surface, our lives will never truly be fulfilling.

So, instead of worrying about being that pretty little package, we need to focus on the opportunity to see what lies within: a kindness far surpassing arms outstretched, a loving heart free of bitterness and a love for those in need of it – a joyful spirit and a joyful soul. That pretty little package may be beautiful, but how much more wonderful it is to see what's on the inside.