A good line on prayer

I like the succinctness of this statement:

>God answers prayers in one of two ways: "Yes," or "I have something better."

Don't know who said it. It was on a person's signature on a forum without a reference to author. It's deeper than it may look at first.

On an atheist forum I gave an example of how a prayer can be answered but in a way a person didn't expect: a woman is treated badly by her husband, she asks in prayer to God for it to be better; so God answers the prayer by opening up the possibility for the woman to move out and away from her abusive husband. Not what the woman expected when she said her prayer.

An atheist responded: "Or the husband beats her to death. This prayer stuff is just way too arbitrary. Good luck with it though." In so many words.

Well, in that case the woman would be getting something arguably better: she would be going to heaven. Not something you ask for (the death part), but a good result nevertheless.