🧪 Shelf¶
Estimated time to read: 2 minutes
Because of her family’s hospitality toward searching and studying, Sister Kimball says, “I’ve always had an inquiring mind. I’m not satisfied just to accept things. I like to follow through and study things out. I learned early to put aside those gospel questions that I couldn’t answer. I had a shelf of things I didn’t understand, but as I’ve grown older and studied and prayed and thought about each problem, one by one I’ve been able to better understand them.”
She twinkles, “I still have some questions on that shelf, but I’ve come to understand so many other things in my life that I’m willing to bide my time for the rest of the answers.”
— Camilla Kimball: Lady of Constant Learning, Ensign October 1975
The term describes a concept or notion that you find dissatisfying, but have the optimism that an answer may appear at some point. Rather than dismiss the entire dispute, “shelf” it and come back later.
In former-Mormon circles, one’s faith breaking comes from putting too much weight on the shelf. Too many unanswered or unsatisfied questions leads one’s shelf to "break", or become so pressing that they can no longer be ignored or pushed aside. This event is colloquially thought of as the inciting incident for one's faith crisis.