Unlike many of our local, state or national politicians, the average person has to make daily decisions about what they can and cannot live without — what to change and what not to change and to spend only what they earn.

The beginning of a new year usually prompts a lot of that kind of self-examination. The bills from Christmas arrive, the numbers on the scale seem to get larger from the turkey, the dressing and the Christmas treats we just couldn’t leave alone.

So we decide to take a look at our finances and decide what is really necessary and we look at our eating habits and our exercise routine, if we have one, in hopes of making a better year for ourselves. We try to embrace the idea of starting over and starting better. We get busy living out the idea that the character Lenore speaks to Forrest Gump in the popular movie … “Don’t cha just love New Years? You get to start all over. Everybody gets a second chance.”

So we look at our bills and ask ourselves what is necessary and how we can curtail our spending. For instance, if I cut out cable TV will my life be severely impacted? What will I do with the extra money? What will I do with the time I will have from not watching TV? We look at our eating habits and ask ourselves why we do what we do. If I cut out sweets will it make a difference or will I just eat more sandwiches? And sometimes we find out that some of our old habits are good ones.

Here at The Observer we get busy at this time of the year asking ourselves similar questions. We get busy starting over and giving ourselves a new chance to be better and ask ourselves the questions that will help us do that. Questions like, “Is what we do important? Does it matter? Do we make a difference? “

We like to think our work to bring you Catholic information is important.

We think our news does matter.

We definitely want to make a difference.

Each New Year brings new challenges. Last year, we knew our diocese would get a new bishop and that the content of The Observer would begin to change. We moved from just delivering you the news within the print pages of The Observer to providing the news in a digital format available on computer, smartphones and tablets. We want to give readers the same content in a format that was convenient and familiar to them without leaving behind our readers who prefer paper.

This year we know that we will jam pack our pages full of information about the Year of Faith and how the church is evolving in a world that appears to be a bit more hostile than in the past to many of the values our religion holds dear. We know The Observer will continue to provide news about the Catholic Church but we also know that we will need to bring you information that helps Catholics understand the “why” about church teaching as it stands forth in today’s culture.

Our job is to work to make sure The Observer is something you want and need as part of your Catholic life. Our job is to provide you with news, education, information and inspiration you absolutely cannot find anywhere else. We work to make sure you have the local Catholic perspective.

We also started this year, like so many for more than 10 years, by keeping The Observer affordable. We have not raised our subscription prices to help you keep reliable, credible Catholic reading material in your home.

We know that you, too, may be asking yourself many questions about the New Year. We are working to make sure your answer to The Observer is “yes.”

So in these next few weeks as your Observer subscription renewal comes to your mail box or to your email inbox, consider starting the new year again with us by renewing your subscription and make this new year another chance to jump start your faith in a fresh new way so that we all can make a difference in the world around us.

Thank you for keeping us in your New Year.