Davening motivation ideas

amother

Dustypink ↓

Tue, Feb 21 2023, 1:04 pm

Do a shorter davening and before each piece say in short what we're asking for.

I.e. before Ashrei, say "Think about how Hashem takes care of each and every creature in the world, giving the birds their food, and giving us warmth and light and friends! Let's praise Hashem for this."

Before Shema, say "The world is so big and great, there are so many Malochim - but Hashem chose US, regular people, to be His special nation! Let's tell Hashem that we feel so lucky to be His special people, and that we're ready to do whatever Hashem wants us to do."

Before Shemoneh Esrei, say "Imagine Hashem's throne room. All of the Malochim are standing there, it's so special. But Hashem tells them all, 'WAIT! Estie, or Rochel, or Miri, are about to have a private meeting with me. Everyone go out - I want to hear what they have to say.' Take three steps back, and then three steps into Hashem's throne room, and ask Hashem for everything you need to be a good Jew today."

Etc.

amother

↑ Dustypink ↓

Tue, Feb 21 2023, 1:11 pm

amother OP wrote:

How can I shorten their davening all of a sudden? (I do think it's too long for them)

"We're going to be starting a new davening program. Boruch Hashem all of you are able to read and daven a lot, but now it's time to start understanding what we're davening better.

"So we're going to be skipping some of the paragraphs we have been saying until now, so we can spend more time on the most important parts of davening.

"Later, when we're better at having kavana, we might be able to add those parts back in."

It might also be good to talk about how the Anshei Kneses Hagedolah started the idea of formal Tefillah, how things were before then, and how these words are supposed to be how we feel and express ourselves, not just words to read.

amother

↑ Dustypink

Tue, Feb 21 2023, 1:15 pm

Also, before adding each part back in, learn something about it so it's exciting. This is a great resource for understanding the parts of davening: https://kidschitas.org/tefillah/pieces.php
(The site is Chabad but most of the information is not Chabad-specific)