Sometimes, everyone gets confused when making decisions about love, and it becomes a roller coaster ride. Unsurprisingly, our favorite hurdler is also not immune from this. World record holder Sydney McLaughlin Levrone was skeptical about her now-husband Andre Leverone. Why was McLaughlin not sure about going forward with him?

When a person fails in a love relationship or gets hurt, it becomes tough to trust again. The same happened with her. Just a year before Sydney met Andre, she had a devastating heartbreak. Hence, so many ifs and buts roamed in her mind. While taking the relationship forward, she had one instruction in mind: “Guard your heart.” 

She authored a book, “Far Beyond Gold: Running from Fear to Faith,” published in January 2024. In this book, she has discussed challenges she faced in her personal life—battling perfectionism and anxiety and tackling questions about whether ‘she was enough.’ A star on track will help inspire you to become a star and have faith in God. Sydney McLaughlin also unfolded her love journey with Andre Levrone and shared one incident when they were at the shore, and Andre took the conversation in a serious direction.

“He told me about mistakes he’d made in his past relationships and how he’d eagerly started dating without truly knowing the other person. He said he didn’t want to do that anymore. Now he intended to build a foundation on friendship and the love of Christ. I want to be completely honest with you,” Andre said these words to her and explained all his past failings and what his goals are and tried to open up everything. But as they say, once bitten and twice shy, the same was happening with Sydney. Because of her bad experiences, she could not understand if everything was going well.

At that time, Sydney was 21 and André was 25. They were going on dates, enjoying spending time with each other, but couldn’t discuss serious topics. Even after knowing each other for one month, she was not able to trust him. She further wrote, “I appreciated his honesty, but it made me uncomfortable. I had no idea how I was supposed to respond to it.” Reflecting on one incident, she wrote, “I found myself struggling with fear. I was afraid of how vulnerable he was and what that would mean for me.”

Later, when she went to her counselor for advice, the counselor pointed to a proverb 4:23. “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Sometimes past relationship traumas and bad experiences hurt people so much that they fear anything good will happen and always doubt the intentions of others. The same was happening with McLaughlin; despite seeing all the green flags in Andre, she was taking a step back. However, whatever happens, happens for good. Now, both of them are together and got married in 2022, but wait—was their marriage an easy affair?

Sydney Mclaughlin’s struggle to convince family to marry Andre

Sydney and Andre connected through Instagram; when she messaged Andre, they hit it off well, became good friends, and then had a romantic relationship. The couple publicly announced their engagement in August 2021, and the marriage ceremony happened in May 2022 at Early Mountain Vineyards in Virginia in front of families and close friends. Was that easy for Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone to convince her parents for the marriage? And the answer is ‘No’.

Her parents were against her early marriage, as she was the youngest daughter and was just 22 years old in 2022, and that was the concern for her family, like any other parent. However, it took her time to convince them, and she admits that their prayers worked for them. Sydney wrote in her book, “Andre and I had to work extra hard to show them how committed we were to each other and let them see the love we shared. After some difficult conversations and much prayer, everyone was on the same page. It brought clarity and joy to the situation.”

Heartbeats are always tough, but the right person can make it easy for you. Though Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s past heartbreak didn’t let her decide on Andre easily, things fell into place—both are sharing their ups and downs. What do you think about Sydney’s journey? Tell us in the comments below.