But then have the audacity to say that other people (say a HIV kid or a starving child in Africa or a sex slave living through repeated rape as a teenager) are not having their prayers answered becuase maybe they're better off for it?!
These are your words. No one said they are better off for it. I am sure God feels, just as we do, that these are terrible situations. Do you think he has to be some genie or Santa Clause who just fixes everything simply because we think it's the best way? Otherwise he must not exist or doesn't care about us? Everything is much more complex and complicated than that. Everyone knows that if we could travel back in time and change one event, it would ripple and change the future.