iPhone 5 won't delete messages

I have an iPhone 5 (iOS 7.1.2)

Recently I've been trying to delete iMessage threads because they contain a year to a couple months worth of text messages. Initially the thread disappears, but I think it causes the Messaging app to crash because when I open it I see an empty inbox, and I don't receive messages people send. I tried restarting my phone and everything goes back to normal. All my threads appear in my messages including the ones I tried deleting and i receive messages people sent previously only after I restart my phone. This has been happening every time I try to delete text threads and I'm not sure how to make it stop happening