Misfortune and Prayers

I was once told by someone "There is nothing that cannot be obtained by praying God and there are numerous instances to prove that." To that I replied "There are as many instances of sincere prayers that have gone unanswered" My reply did not go well with that person.
Prayer should essentially be something that gives you the strength to face any eventuality ie which doesnot make you very sad in the event of a misfortune and too happy in the event of a very favourable event. I personally know of an instance where the loss of a son was majestically taken by a mother who was very pious. The mother said that "God has recalled him and we shall unite later." I also know of an another very pious father who has now stopped praying as this father now blames the God for not giving him adequate opportunity to save his son. The prayer of the father was basically flawed as we can understand that the prayer was being considered by this loving father as a means to attain worldly pleasures and giver was being considered to be the God in a direct give and take system.
The Bhagavadgita says so clearly that God does not give anything to any body as nothing has ever been taken away from anybody!!! Hinduism does not have a concept of an interfering God... here the concept is of a non participating God where things have just been put into motion by God and the God operates the whole system by "rta" ie. "the course of events". The very "rta" is considered as God in certain circumstances.
WE NEED TO TEACH OUR CHILDREN TO PRAY IN THE RIGHT MANNER.. LET THE PRAYERS OF OUR CHILDREN BE NOT TO GET THIS AND THAT BUT TO HAVE THE STRENGTH TO FACE SITUATIONS IN THE PROCESS OF GETTING THIS AND THAT.

What to pray and Thanks giving

I came accross a very interesting piece of information on prayer by Dr Gopalakrishnan.....
"WHAT SHOULD I PRAY ?: Pray for getting the courage to face all the positives and negatives in our life. The prayer will work if and only if we pray for what we deserve. We do not know what we deserve. We only know what we want. If we want to go for a 300 km using 5 liter petrol in your car and pray to the god. You know what will happen. What we deserve is 5 liter equivalent distance coverage. What we want is 300 kms distance. Think what we deserve and what we will get. And also think 500 people pray for the first rank in the exam and how many will get the same !"
A few days back i had heard a similar arguement in a christian programme... where the perspective of God was being discussed in a situation where a daughter prays God for a favourable decision from parents for a marriage with a boy with whom she is in love and the parents pray for a favourable decision for change of mind from the daughter to consent to a marriage with a boy they have chosen. If all are equally religiuos who will the God favour???

Personally I do not believe that God will ever interfere in such a decision... and prefer to go by the theory that God never gives me anything since nothing has been taken away from me.
Hence I cannot accept the concept of Thanksgiving at all.....