Posts Tagged ‘teens and prayer’

 

Guest Writers: 7th Graders at Temple Beth Jacob

Posted on: February 8th, 2018 by Alden

Inspired by my Six-Word Prayer Facebook community, Rabbi Robin Nafshi, Temple Beth Jacob in Concord, NH, asked the 7th graders to sum up three Jewish prayers in six words: Maariv Aravim, Ahavat Olam and Mi Chamocha. Each student wrote a six-word prayer. The class put them together to make three eight-line, six-word prayers. The activity was part of a project creating art for a Shabbat Service. Here are those prayers, written by Alex, Anna, Emily, Judah, Julia, Rachel, Sam and Sammi. This post is part of a new addition here: occasionally featuring guest writers.

Ma-ariv Aravim
Ruler of all, Creator of life
You created Day, night, light, darkness
Earth is now whole, thank You
Thanks for giving light in darkness
Sky and night, light the way
You created us all, so thanks
Change is always happening to us
Thanks God for seasons and days

Ahavat Olam
We always love family and friends
I love God for everything done
We love You, You love us
You protect Israel and teach us
Thanks for Torah, thanks for Love
One God loves us through Torah
Everlasting love learned in the Torah
Torah teaches us, yet I wonder

Mi Chamocha
You saved us, gave us peace
You’ve saved us, we are thankful
The sea splitting, saving the people
God saved us, we thank You
Thanks for helping us leave Egypt
God’s glory is shown to children
Creation is everything, God is one
You saved us, and are one

Prayers are © 2018 Temple Beth Jacob, Concord, NH

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Postscript: I’ve begun offering workshops for adults and teens using six-word prayers as a teaching tool. Here’s an article on Six-Word Prayers by my friend and Eli talks companion, Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer. And here, again, is a link to the Six-Word Prayer Facebook community. Read the prayer of my first Guest Writer, Eliza Scheffler, also an HUC-JIR student, by clicking here.

Please check out my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer,” and This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” To receive my latest prayers via email, please subscribe (on the home page). You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo Source: Alden Solovy and imageflip.com

These Troubled Children

Posted on: October 1st, 2017 by Alden

Here’s a prayer for our children, youths and teens who express their pain through various forms of self-violence. Here are several related prayers: “My Child’s Self-Inflicted Wounds,” “My Depression,” “Cutting, A Prayer to End Self-Mutilation” and “Mental Illness.”

These Troubled Children
Who will take these troubled children
By the hand and lead them
Back to joy and comfort?

You, who cut your own flesh,
There is no blade sharper
Than your own grief.

You, who drink to disappear,
There is no poison more deadly
Than your own doubts.

You, who drug your minds,
There is no potion more deadly
Than your own despair.

Beautiful child,
You are not yet lost.
You are not yet gone forever.
Come home.

Source and Shelter,
Lead these troubled children
To the arms of hope and help.
A loving parent.
A caring friend.
A big brother. A big sister.
An AA meeting.
A suicide prevention line.
A foster family.
A pastor, a priest, a rabbi, an imam.
A counselor.
A professional with resources
And an open heart.

Healer and Guide,
Bring these troubled children
Back to wholeness and peace.
Let love fall like warm rain
Into their hearts.

© 2017 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: See also: “My Child’s Self-Inflicted Wounds,” “My Depression,” “Cutting, A Prayer to End Self-Mutilation” and “Mental Illness.”

Please check out my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer,” and This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” To receive my latest prayers via email, please subscribe (on the home page). You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo Source: Pinterest

Two Prayers by Teens

Posted on: August 4th, 2015 by Alden

Writing with InkHere are two prayers written at two different sessions of my teen writing workshop. We used the same process, but the conversations about prayer were much different. So were the results. Yesterday at NewCAJE6, I led an intensive teacher training called “Pray in Our Own Words: Generating Excitement for Prayer,” which included teaching the technique I use with teens to write a common prayer.

For a Better World
Acknowledge us, O God,
So we may know wisdom, strength, justice and kindness;
So we will witness the miracle of life, love and peace;
So that the doors of understanding open for us and for our children.
As we learn to fulfill our duties to you Adonai,
Rekindle the light of mitzvot
And protect us all.

‘Wowl-ing’ to God
God is the original superhero.
You are awesome, the deliverer of truth and faith.
You give us creativity, which is the opportunity to make all that is good and evil.
We thank, praise and sanctify your knowledge, light and change, forever.
Thank you for giving us all choices.
Thank you for the unique universe.
Help us long for the life, ability, soul, body and love
That makes our destiny beautiful and, most of all, ours.
Sanctity humus, the moon, the sun, and light.
Praise beauty, awe and wide double rainbows.
All love trees.
Let us ‘Wowl’ at the moon and rejoice in Your Awesomeness.

© 2015 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: If you’re interested in learning more about my workshops for adults and teens, please drop me an email at alden@tobendlight.com. ‘Wowl’ is a word the teens coined by combining the words ‘wow’ – as in ‘praise G-d’ – and ‘howl, as in howling at the moon. It means: ‘howling with spiritual intent to celebrate the beauty G-d put in this world.’

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Photo Source: Living a Life of Writing

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