Bill Mounce has some great thoughts on learning to pray.

“Please notice how the discussion starts: “Pray then like this.” The Lord’s Prayer was never intended to be mindlessly repeated as if it were some magical incantation. It is not to be recited in church while we were thinking of who is playing football this afternoon. In the verses immediately preceding our passage, Jesus specifically addresses this issue (Matthew 6:5-8). But we are to pray “like” this. In other words, while at times we may want to pray the actual words of the Lord’s Prayer, for the most part it gives us the basic structure and content of our prayers. We take the Lord’s Prayer and weave in the specifics of our own lives.”