Effective and Productive

I was reading my Bible at Starbucks earlier this week and came across these verses.

1 Peter 1:5-8
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lately I have been feeling really ineffective and unproductive. These verses were such a huge encouragement to me to read about the character qualities required for being effective and productive. I'm so glad that these verses do not say something like- and add to your high school diploma a Bachelors Degree, and to your Bachelors Degree, a Masters Degree, and to your Masters Degree a successful career and to your successful career, a perfect family and to your perfect family a perfect retirement etc. No. God, through Peter, has given us the character qualities we need to work on to be effective and productive for Christ's Kingdom!