Hashem, Please Daven For Me
The Bnei Yissaschar kept the Arizal's siddur open on his stand but prayed from a simple one, and explained why by retelling a story of the Baal Shem Tov.
Chassidim noticed that the Bnei Yissaschar always kept the Arizal's siddur open on the stand before him, yet he prayed from a plain siddur held in his hand. When they asked, he answered with a story of the Baal Shem Tov.
A cruel landowner had murdered his Jewish tenant and the tenant's wife over an unpaid debt and carried off their baby boy, whom he raised as his own heir. The boy grew up as a young nobleman, knowing nothing of his origin. One Tishrei he saw the local Jews heading for the city, and a neighbor told him he was a Jew and that his parents had been killed. The landowner denied it, but in the forest the young man found the empty cabin and a small book in strange letters, which, on Yom Kippur, a Jew told him was his mother's siddur, with her name and his written inside the cover.
He asked to be taken to shul. There he opened the siddur among the worshippers and found that he could not read a single word. In tears he held it up and cried that this had been his mother's siddur, that he did not know how to pray, and begged Hashem to pray for him. The Baal Shem Tov said that these words made a deep impression in Heaven.
The Bnei Yissaschar explained that his rebbes knew the kavanos of the Arizal and could use his siddur properly. He, he said, knew nothing, so he opened the siddur before Hashem and said the same words: You do it. Please, You pray for me.
Source: Sippurei Chassidim on the Festivals (Rav Zevin), #78.
There are days when davening feels beyond us, because we are tired, distracted or unsure of the words. Before your next tefillah, hold your siddur for a moment and say, in your own language, that you want to pray and are not sure how. Then simply say the words you can. If you find yourself thinking that others pray better, remember the boy in the story. Hashem values what a person brings from the heart more than how polished it is.