Suicide

About a week ago one of my students (who is in her 40's or 50's) decided to tell me that she believes that if someone commits suicide they will not go to heaven. Now, I'm not offended if someone wants to talk about suicide, or make references to it because not a whole lot of people know about my dad's suicide. But, I am constantly amazed about how freely people talk about it without regard to other people. There are lots of suicides in the world, many of which are in the US. Why would someone make such a thoughtless comment? I did stop her right after that comment and tell her that my father committed suicide and that I didn't necessarily think that at all, but hold onto the hope that my God is bigger than our narrow minds, and that He sees the pain and suffering people go through who commit suicide and see no way out. She immediately apologized to me and felt really bad for saying that. In our world where there are so many issues going on, how do we interact with people without offending? We can't right? But is there a line we draw in talking about things? Or, are those of us effected by situations like this supposed to simply stand by and make exceptions? Just a thought.....