Baptism

I've always thought of baptism as a symbolic ceremony of commitment to Christ. Christian denominations disagree about many of the details of this ceremony: infant vs. adult, full immersion in water vs. pouring or sprinkling water, rivers vs. pools, in the name of Jesus vs. the Trinity, etc.

I personally believe these details are peripheral. It's like quibbling about the rituals of a wedding ceremony rather than focusing on the life changes ahead in marriage.

 "For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose it's power in our lives." (Romans 6:4,6 NLT)

Baptism is symbolic of the death of our old self and resurrection into a new life. In our pre-commitment days, we may have been sinful (lived separately from Christ). Our character, perspective, and daily routines should be completely different after we are unified with Christ. If a married person acts the same way as when he or she were single, we would think that's odd. After we have made a commitment to Christ, we are no longer in control of our own lives. We have willingly given ourselves over to our Beloved.