Wow, now that was deep. I had to think a while on it. Good points. I need to comment on this, though:

I have been acquainted with an individual who is discouraged in their quest for truth because they perceive the other christians to have "perfect lives". This individual finds such unatainable and doesn't feel part of the group because of this. What could we do, as a group and in one on one situations to remedy this?

The only thing that we can do as a group is to make it clear that noone has a perfect life. It is such a naive view that anyone has a perfect life. The reality: everyone has problems and the way they are dealt with is how we determine our personal happiness.

Example: Where I work we have recently had a rash of people leaving for new jobs. We are three positions down in a department that typically has eight. Added to this, we are extremely busy (more than normal) with very complex projects (no government jokes here). Each of us could sit around and whine about it or we could take great enjoyment in teh fact that we can still get the work done and produce it in a high quality manner. If someone looked at us and said "Wow, their job is perfect because they are so happy and they like their job, mine is so stressful and unenjoyable. They have a perfect job." what would the real truth be?

While this is a work example, the principle still holds that each person must control their perception.

As brothers and sisters we must build each other up and build self-esteem and self-worth as well. BUT, each person also has a greater responsible to be responsive to the attempts of others to include them.

Society loves to encourage those that are different to see themselves as victims. Everyone else has it good and they have it bad so society, government and others own them. Not true says me!