How can I open the individual message to read, respond or delete.

I have an iphone 5c that was working perfectly. But now I can not access my messages after I open the message icon. The individual messages are there to my contacts but when i touch the message it does not open? I can open the edit system but it won't let me delete? Everything else works fine, I can open and scroll through other apps, it is just my "message" system that seems frozen or locked after displaying my list of messages? I admit I am not very tech inclined so I could have changed something in settings but I have no idea what that might be. Anyone have any ideas?? Thanks!